Fine

adjective finer · finest

1. Of superior quality. The tree frog that they encountered was truly a fine specimen.
2. ironic Impressively bad, inappropriate, or unsatisfactory. You're a fine one to talk about laziness.
3. informal Being acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory; having one's well-being be no cause for concern. How are you today? – Fine.
4. informal Good-looking, attractive. That man is so fine that I'd jump into his pants without a moment's hesitation.
5. Subtle, delicately balanced or discriminated. In any case, Feinsilver’s nomenclatural suggestions and fine distinctions did not enjoy widespread adoption.
6. obsolete Showy; overdecorated. 1853, Matthew Arnold, Preface to The Poems of Matthew Arnold They will permit the poet to select any action he pleases, and to suffer that action to go as it will, provided he gratifies them with occasional bursts of fine writing
7. Delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; dexterous. Thou haſt ſpoken all alreadie, vnleſſe thou canſt ſay they are married, but thou art too fine in thy euidence, therefore ſtand aſide.
8. An answer often used to cover an unnecessary explanation, rather to avoid conflict or an argument. Saying "I'm fine" can be used to avoid inquiry when the speaker is not really okay. Do you want to talk about what happened? – [sharply, with annoyance or discomfort] I'm fine!
9. Of a particular grade of quality, usually between very good and very fine, and below mint. The small scratch meant that his copy of “X-Men #2” was merely fine when it otherwise would have been “near mint”.
10. Sunny and not raining. If the afternoon was fine they strolled together in the park, very slowly, and with pauses to draw breath wherever the ground sloped upward. The slightest effort made the patient cough.
11. Consisting of especially minute particulates; made up of particularly small pieces. Grind it into a fine powder.
12. Particularly slender; especially thin, narrow, or of small girth. The threads were so fine that you had to look through a magnifying glass to see them.
13. Made of slender or thin filaments. They protected themselves from the small parasites with a fine wire mesh.
14. Having a (specified) proportion of pure metal in its composition. Coins nine tenths fine.
15. Behind the batsman and at a small angle to the line between the wickets. […]to nudge it through the covers (or tickle it down to fine leg) for a four[…]
16. obsolete Subtle; thin; tenuous. The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser.

adverb more fine · most fine

1. Well, nicely, in a positive, agreeable way. Everything worked out fine.
2. colloquial, dated, dialectal Finely; elegantly; delicately.
3. In a manner so that the driven ball strikes the object ball so far to one side as to be barely deflected, the object ball being driven to one side.

interjection

1. Expression of (typically) reluctant or agreement.
2. Expression of (typically) reluctant acceptance, without further argument or discussion, of another person's viewpoint.

noun fines

1. Fine champagne; French brandy. We had dined at l'Avenue's, and afterward went to the Café de Versailles for coffee. We had several fines after the coffee, and I said I must be going.
2. plural normally Something that is fine; fine particles. They filtered silt and fines out of the soil.

verb fines · fining · fined

1. transitive To make finer, purer, or cleaner; to purify or clarify. to fine gold
2. intransitive To become finer, purer, or cleaner.
3. To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc. The tools to be used for this surface tillage are those that comminute or fine the soil most completely without compacting it or leaving it in ridges or in furrows
4. To change by fine gradations. to fine down a ship's lines, i.e. to diminish her lines gradually
5. transitive To clarify (wine and beer) by filtration.
6. dated, intransitive To become gradually fine; to diminish; to dwindle (with away, down, or off). I watched her [the ship] […] gradually fining down in the westward until I lost sight of her hull.

noun fines

1. A fee levied as punishment for breaking the law. The fine for jay-walking has gone from two dollars to thirty in the last fifteen years.
2. obsolete Money paid by a tenant on the commencement of a tenancy so that their rent may be small or nominal.
3. A drink that must be taken during a meal or as part of a drinking game, following an announcement that anyone who has done some (usually outrageous) deed is to be fined; similar to I have never; commonly associated with swaps; very similar to a sconce at Oxford University, though a fine is the penalty itself rather than the act of issuing it. Fine if you've…

Similar: amercement

verb fines · fining · fined

1. transitive To issue a fine as punishment to (someone). She was fined a thousand dollars for littering, but she appealed.
2. intransitive To pay a fine. Men fined for the king's good will; or that he would remit his anger; women fined for leave to marry.

Similar: amerce

noun fines

1. The end of a musical composition.
2. The location in a musical score that indicates the end of the piece, particularly when the piece ends somewhere in the middle of the score due to a section of the music being repeated.

verb fines · fining · fined

1. intransitive, obsolete To finish; to cease.
2. obsolete, transitive To cause to cease; to stop.

noun fines

1. obsolete End; conclusion; termination; extinction. And secret feare, to see their fatall fine
2. A final agreement concerning lands or rents between persons, as the lord and his vassal. To cause them to pay more rent or a gretter fyne than they haue ben acustomed to do in tyme past.
3. UK A sum of money or price paid for obtaining a benefit, favor, or privilege, as for admission to a copyhold, or for obtaining or renewing a lease.

proper noun Fines

1. A surname.