fine

comparative finer · superlative finest

1. Senses referring to subjective quality.
   1. Of superior quality.

      The tree frog that they encountered was truly a fine specimen.

      3 more examples

      Only a really fine wine could fully complement Lucía's hand-made pasta.

      "That's a fine young fellow," said the historiographer of earwigs, to an American who stood next him in the crowd.

      1856, L. S. Lavenu, chapter XVII, in Erlesmere; or, Contrasts of Character, volume 1, London: Smith, Elder & Co., page 171

      "A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.[…]."

      1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

      Synonyms: good, excellent

   2. ironicImpressively bad, inappropriate, or unsatisfactory.

      You're a fine one to talk about laziness.

      2 more examples

      Here's another fine mess you've gotten us into.

      A fine romance, with no kisses, A fine romance, my friend, this is; We should be like a couple of hot tomatoes, But you're as cold as yesterday's mashed potatoes.

      1936, “A Fine Romance”, in Dorothy Fields (lyrics), Jerome Kern (music), Swing Time (musical film)

      Synonyms: hell of a

   3. informalBeing acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory; having one's well-being be no cause for concern.

      How are you today? – Fine.

      5 more examples

      Will this one do? It's got a dent in it. – Yeah, it'll be fine, I guess.

      It's fine with me if you stay out late, so long as you're back by three.

      Don't worry about us; the storm knocked the power out, but we're all fine.

      On the surface, everything is fine. The sleek, futuristic spaceship setting is fine (if a little cold), the acting is fine (or better than fine, in Lawrence’s case), the music is fine, the lighting is fine, the editing, the camerawork—all fine.

      2016 December 20, Katie Rife, “Passengers strains the considerable charms of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 23 Apr 2018

      Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.

      1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

      Synonyms: all right, ok, o.k., okay, hunky-dory, kosher

   4. informalGood-looking, attractive.

      That man is so fine that I'd jump into his pants without a moment's hesitation.

      2 more examples

      It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

      1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

      He's so fine (doo-lang-doo-lang-doo-lang) / Wish he were mine (doo-lang-doo-lang-doo-lang) / That handsome boy over there (doo-lang-doo-lang-doo-lang) / The one with the wavy hair (doo-lang-doo-lang-doo-lang)

      1963, Ronnie Mack, “He's So Fine”, in He's So Fine, performed by The Chiffons

   5. Subtle, delicately balanced or discriminated.

      In any case, Feinsilver’s nomenclatural suggestions and fine distinctions did not enjoy widespread adoption.

      2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 7

   6. obsoleteShowy; 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.

      The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!

      1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC

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      Thou haſt ſpoken all alreadie, vnleſſe thou canſt ſay they are married, but thou art too fine in thy euidence, therefore ſtand aſide.

      c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 253, column 2

      The nicest and most delicate touches of satire consist in fine raillery.

      c. 1692, John Dryden, Discourse on Satire

      He has as fine a hand at picking a pocket as a woman.

      1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera

   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!

2. Senses referring to objective quality.
   1. 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”.

   2. 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.

      1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   3. Consisting of especially minute particulates; made up of particularly small pieces.

      Grind it into a fine powder.

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      When she touched the artifact, it collapsed into a heap of fine dust.

      And if thy oblation be a meate offering baken in the frying pan,it ſhalbe made of fine flowꝛe with oyle.

      1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Leviticus 2:7

      Synonyms: fine-grained, fine-grain, powdered, powdery, pulverised, pulverized, small-grained · Antonyms: coarse

   4. 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.

      1 more example

      But as our urban lives have grown more pressed for time, we have diced our opportunity costs finer and finer; from budgeting days or slabs of hours, we have come to rationing minutes.

      2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Apr 2020

   5. Made of slender or thin filaments.

      They protected themselves from the small parasites with a fine wire mesh.

      Synonyms: fine-threaded · Antonyms: coarse

   6. Having a (specified) proportion of pure metal in its composition.

      Coins nine tenths fine.

3. ball gamesBehind 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[…]

4. obsoleteSubtle; thin; tenuous.

   The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser.

   1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC

comparative more fine · superlative most fine

1. Well, nicely, in a positive, agreeable way.

   Everything worked out fine.

   Synonyms: all right, alright, OK, very well

2. colloquialdateddialectalFinely; elegantly; delicately.
3. ball gamesIn 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.

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

plural fines

1. Fine champagne; French brandy.

   He refilled his glass. ‘The fine is very good,’ he said.

   1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber, published 2007, page 18

   2 more examples

   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.

   1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, Scribner, published 2003, page 14

   ‘Darling,’ Lois told her, ‘don't get depressed. Have another fine.’

   1928, Jean Rhys, Quartet, Penguin, published 2000, page 34

2. plural normallySomething that is fine; fine particles.

   They filtered silt and fines out of the soil.

present singular third person fines · participle present fining · participle past fined · past fined

1. transitiveTo make finer, purer, or cleaner; to purify or clarify.

   to fine gold

   1 more example

   1666 (written), 1681 (published), Thomas Hobbes, A Dialogue between a Philosopher and a Student of the Common Laws of England It hath been fined and refined by […] learned men.

2. intransitiveTo become finer, purer, or cleaner.

   Synonyms: clarify, refine, purify

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

   1913, Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Practical Garden Book

4. To change by fine gradations.

   to fine down a ship's lines, i.e. to diminish her lines gradually

   1 more example

   I often sate at home On evenings, watching how they fined themselves With gradual conscience to a perfect night.

   1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “(please specify either |book=1 to 9 or the page)”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC

5. transitiveTo clarify (wine and beer) by filtration.
6. datedintransitiveTo 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.

   1882, William Clark Russell, My Watch Below

plural 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.

   1 more example

   The popular late Middle Ages fictional character Robin Hood, dressed in green to symbolize the forest, dodged fines for forest offenses and stole from the rich to give to the poor. But his appeal was painfully real and embodied the struggle over wood.

   2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion

2. obsoleteMoney paid by a tenant on the commencement of a tenancy so that their rent may be small or nominal.
3. Cambridge University slangA 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…

   1 more example

   Near-synonym: (Oxford University slang) sconce

   Synonyms: sconce

present singular third person fines · participle present fining · participle past fined · past fined

1. transitiveTo issue a fine as punishment to (someone).

   She was fined a thousand dollars for littering, but she appealed.

2. intransitiveTo pay a fine.

   Men fined for the king's good will; or that he would remit his anger; women fined for leave to marry.

   1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages

plural fines

1. entertainmentThe end of a musical composition.
2. entertainmentThe 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.

present singular third person fines · participle present fining · participle past fined · past fined

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo finish; to cease.
2. obsoletetransitiveTo cause to cease; to stop.

plural fines

1. obsoleteEnd; conclusion; termination; extinction.

   Is this the fine of his fines?

   c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]

   1 more example

   And secret feare, to see their fatall fine

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37

2. feudal lawA 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.

   1523, Anthony Fitzherbert, The Boke of Surveying and Improvements

3. UKlawA 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.

plural Fines

1. A surname.