refining
Making something purer
Refining is the process of removing impurities or unwanted elements to make something purer or more precise.
Crude oil undergoes refining to become gasoline and other petroleum products; sugar and metals are similarly refined.
The word extends naturally to abstract improvements: She spent months refining her argument before publication.
To refine one's skills or techniques is to make them more polished and effective through careful adjustment.
Extracting metal from ore
- oreMetal-bearing rock
- furnaceEnclosed heat-producing structure
- moltenLiquefied by extreme heat
- slagIndustrial metalworking byproduct
crucible · ingot · alloy · casting · tempering · foundry · steelworks · electrolysis
Purify through vaporization
- condenseMake more compact
- purifyRemove unwanted substances
- extractConcentrated derived substance
- separateTo set apart
concentrate · evaporate · boil · filter · clarify · rectify · percolate · leach
Remove unwanted substances
- cleanseRemove dirt or sin
- filterPorous separation device
- clarifyMake something understandable
- sanitizeCleanse of pathogens
detoxify · decontaminate · sterilize · sift · strain · disinfect · purge · freshen
Raise in quality
develop · optimize · sharpen · fine-tune · tweak · revise · amend · upgrade
Cultured elegance and complexity
- graceEffortless beauty of motion
- eleganceRefined, graceful quality
- poiseGraceful, unshakable calm
- tasteFlavor perception ability
finesse · cultured · polished · discerning · cultivated · genteel · urbane · cosmopolitan
smelting
Extracting metal from ore
slag · crucible · ingot · alloy · casting · tempering · foundry · steelworks · electrolysis · anode
distill
Purify through vaporization
separate · concentrate · evaporate · boil · filter · clarify · rectify · percolate · leach · steep
purify
Remove unwanted substances
sanitize · detoxify · decontaminate · sterilize · sift · strain · disinfect · purge · freshen · rinse
improve
Raise in quality
polish · develop · optimize · sharpen · fine-tune · tweak · revise · amend · upgrade · better
sophistication
Cultured elegance and complexity
taste · finesse · cultured · polished · discerning · cultivated · genteel · urbane · cosmopolitan · worldly
buff
Avid fan; also burnish
gloss · luster · shine · sheen · gleam · wax · glaze · varnish · sleekness · patina
- oil industrypetroleum, oil fields, oil well, oil rig, oil production
- steelmakingblast furnace, molten steel, steel production, basic oxygen furnace, steel mills
- separating methodsflour sifting, gold panning, winnowing, straining, screening
- copper miningcopper ore, copper production, smelting, open pit, flotation
- heat processingheating, melting, annealing, tempering, quenching
- mercury processingmercury vapor, distillation, condensation, amalgamation
refiningcontaminating
Making something impure
adulterating · polluting · corrupting · tainting · diluting
refiningcoarsening
Becoming more crude
degrading · roughening · simplifying · dumbing down · corrupting
- oil refiningSeparating crude into fuels
- zone refiningPurification via traveling melt
- gold refiningPurifying the yellow metal
- refining processMethod of improving purity
- metal refiningPurifying ore into usable form
- sugar refiningProcessing raw sweetener into pure form
finish, final, define, refined, refine, infinite, unrefined, confine, refinement