fine

From Middle English fin, fyn, from Old French fin (“fine, minute, exact”), probably from Latin finis (“a limit, end”), with an abstract sense of "fine" or "thin" also arising in many Romance languages (compare Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian fino).

• IPA^(key): /faɪn/,

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• Rhymes: -aɪn
• (Tasmanian) IPA^(key): /fæːn/

• Audio (AU)

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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.

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

      • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0124:

        "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. […]."

   2. (informal) Being acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory.

      How are you today? – Fine.

      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.

      • 2016 December 20, Katie Rife, “Passengers strains the considerable charms of Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence”, in The Onion AV Club‎:

        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.

      • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 3, in The Celebrity:

        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.

   3. (informal) Good-looking, attractive.

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

      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 10, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

        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.

   4. Subtle, delicately balanced.
      • The Independent

        The fine distinction between lender of last resort and a bail-out […]

   5. (obsolete) Showy; overdecorated.
      • (Can we date this quote?) Matthew Arnold

        He gratified them with occasional […] fine writing.

   6. Delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; dexterous.
      • c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii], page 253, column 2:

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

      • (Can we date this quote?) Alexander Pope

        The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!

      • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

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

      • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Gray

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

   7. 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.

      When a girl says she's "fine," she ain't 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. (of weather) Sunny and not raining.
      • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 23, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

        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.

   3. Consisting of especially minute particulate; made up of particularly small pieces.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Leviticus 2:7:

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

      Grind it into a fine powder.

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

   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.

   5. Made of slender or thin filaments.

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

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

      coins nine tenths fine

3. (cricket) 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 […]

4. (obsolete) Subtle; thin; tenuous.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

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

• (of superior quality): good, excellent
• (of acceptable quality, informal): (being acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory): all right, ok, o.k., okay, hunky-dory, kosher
• (made up of particularly small pieces): fine-grained, powdered, powdery, pulverised, pulverized, small-grained
• (made of slender or thin filaments): fine-threaded

• (made up of particularly small pieces): coarse
• (made of slender or thin filaments): coarse

• not to put too fine a point on it

fine (comparative more fine, superlative most fine)

1. Expression of (typically) reluctant agreement.
2. Well, nicely, in a positive way.

   Everything worked out fine.

3. (dated, dialectal, colloquial) Finely; elegantly; delicately.
4. (pool, billiards) 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.

• (expression of agreement) all right, alright, OK, very well

fine (plural fines)

1. Fine champagne; French brandy.
   • 1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, Scribner 2003, page 14:

     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.

   • 1936, Djuna Barnes, Nightwood, Faber & Faber 2007, page 18:

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

2. (usually in the plural) Something that is fine; fine particles.
   • They filtered silt and fines out of the soil.

Particularly used in plural as fines of ground coffee beans in espresso making.

• filing

fine (third-person singular simple present fines, present participle fining, simple past and past participle fined)

1. (transitive) To make finer, purer, or cleaner; to purify or clarify.

   to fine gold

   • Hobbes

     It hath been fined and refined by […] learned men.

2. (intransitive) To become finer, purer, or cleaner.
3. To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.

   to fine the soil

   (Can we find and add a quotation of L. H. Bailey to this entry?)

4. To change by fine gradations.

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

   • Browning

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

5. (transitive) To clarify (wine and beer) by filtration.
6. (intransitive, dated) To become gradually fine; to diminish; to dwindle (with away, down, or off).
   • W. C. Russel

     I watched her [the ship] […] gradually fining down in the westward until I lost sight of her hull.

• (to make or become finer, purer, or cleaner): clarify, refine, purify

• (clarify by filtration): finings

• final
• finite

From Middle English fyn, fyne, from Old French fin, from Medieval Latin finis (“a payment in settlement or tax”).

• IPA^(key): /faɪn/,

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fine (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.

   • 2006, Edwin Black, chapter 2, in Internal Combustion‎:

     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.

• amercement

fine (third-person singular simple present fines, present participle fining, simple past and past participle 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.
   • Hallam

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

• amerce

• finance

From Italian fine (“end”).

• enPR: fē'nā, IPA^(key): /ˈfiːneɪ/

fine (plural fines)

1. (music) The end of a musical composition.
2. (music) 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.

This word is virtually never used in speech and therefore essentially confined to musical notation.

• da capo al fine=D.C. al fine

From Middle English finen, fynen, from Old French finer, finir. See finish (transitive verb).

fine (third-person singular simple present fines, present participle fining, simple past and past participle fined)

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

fine (plural fines)

1. (obsolete) End; conclusion; termination; extinction.
   • Spenser

     to see their fatal fine

   • Shakespeare

     Is this the fine of his fines?

2. A final agreement concerning lands or rents between persons, as the lord and his vassal.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spelman to this entry?)

3. (Britain, law) 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.

• Enif, Fein, NiFe, feni, ifen, neif, nief, nife

fine

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of finar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of finar

fine

1. plural and definite singular attributive of fin

fine

1. finally, at last
2. in the final analysis, when all's said and done

• IPA^(key): /fin/
• Rhymes: -in

fine

1. feminine singular of fin

fine f (plural fines)

1. (typography) thin space, non-breakable space
2. a number of high grade French brandies (usually AOC certified)

• “fine” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

fine

1. woman, female (of any sort:)

   fine fau : young woman

   tiana fine : his wife

   tiona fine : his daughter

   fine riki : mistress

• Arthur Capell, Futuna-Aniwa Dictionary, with Grammatical Introduction (1984)

fine

1. finally

From Old Irish fine, from Proto-Celtic *weniyā (“family”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“desire”); compare Old English wine (“friend”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʲɪnʲə/

fine f (genitive singular fine, nominative plural finte)

1. family group

• Fine Gael

From Latin fīnis.

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fine (masculine and feminine plural fini)

1. thin

   Synonym: sottile

2. fine
3. refined

   Synonym: elegante

fine

1. feminine plural of fino

fine f (plural fini)

1. end

   Synonyms: conclusione, finale, termine

   Antonyms: inizio, principio

fine m (plural fini)

1. aim, purpose, end

   Synonyms: scopo, obiettivo

   il fine giustifica i mezzi ― the ends justifies the means

• alla fine
• alla fin fine
• al fine di
• in fin dei conti
• finale
• finezza
• finire
• fino
• alla fine
• fine settimana
• infine
• senza fine

• feni

fīne

1. ablative singular of fīnis

• fine in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers

From Old Irish faigen (“sheath, scabbard”), from Latin vāgīna. Cognate with Irish faighin and Scottish Gaelic faighean.

fine f

1. quiver
2. sheath, scabbard
3. vagina

• cuinnag
• pihtt, pitt

From Old Frisian finda, which derives from Proto-Germanic *finþaną. Cognates include Föhr-Amrum North Frisian finj and West Frisian fine.

fine

1. (Mooring Dialect) to find

fine

1. definite singular of fin
2. plural form of fin

fine

1. definite singular of fin
2. plural form of fin

From Proto-Celtic *weniyā.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʲinʲe/

fine f

1. family, kin, group of people of common descent
2. clan, tribe, race

• Irish: fine

• “fine” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

fine

1. first-person singular present subjunctive of finar
2. third-person singular present subjunctive of finar
3. third-person singular imperative of finar

From Italian fine, and partly French fin.

fine f (uncountable)

1. (literary) end

• sfârșit

• în fine

fine

1. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of finir.
2. Formal second-person singular (usted) present indicative form of finir.
3. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present indicative form of finir.

fine

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of fin.

From Old Frisian finda, from Proto-Germanic *finþaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pent-

• IPA^(key): /ˈfinə/

fine

1. to find
2. to decide that, to form the opinion that

   Ik fin dyn freon moai.

   I find your friend nice.

• “fine (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011