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fine definition

Overview

This page has 86 definitions of fine with English translations in 17 languages. Fine is an adjective, an adverb, noun and verb. Examples of how to use fine in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: finé and fíne

English fine definition

Etymology 1

From Middle English fin, fyn, from Old French fin (“fine, minute, exact”), of obscure origin, but probably derived from Latin fīnīre (“to finish”) and/or fīnis (“boundary, limit, end”), with an abstract sense of "fine" or "thin" also arising in many Romance languages (compare Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian fino). Doublet of fino.

Pronunciation

Adjective

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:
        "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. […]."
      Synonyms: good, excellent
    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[1]:
        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.
      • 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 222716698:
        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.
      Synonyms: all right, ok, o.k., okay, hunky-dory, kosher
    3. (informal) Good-looking, attractive.
      That man is so fine that I'd jump into his pants without a moment's hesitation.
      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
        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 or discriminated.
      • 2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide‎[2], page 7:
        In any case, Feinsilver’s nomenclatural suggestions and fine distinctions did not enjoy widespread adoption.
    5. (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
    6. Delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; dexterous.
    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.
      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. (of weather) Sunny and not raining.
      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 4293071:
        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 particulates; made up of particularly small pieces.
      Grind it into a fine powder.
      When she touched the artifact, it collapsed into a heap of fine dust.
      Synonyms: fine-grained, powdered, powdery, pulverised, pulverized, small-grained
      Antonym: 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.
    5. Made of slender or thin filaments.
      They protected themselves from the small parasites with a fine wire mesh.
      Synonym: fine-threaded
      Antonym: coarse
    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.
    • 1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] VVilliam Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], OCLC 1044372886:
      The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser.
Derived terms

See below.

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adverb

fine (comparative more fine, superlative most fine)

  1. Expression of (typically) reluctant or agreement.
    Synonyms: all right, alright, OK, very well
  2. Well, nicely, in a positive, agreeable way.
    Everything worked out fine.
  3. (dated, dialect, 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.
Translations

Noun

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.
Usage notes

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

See also

Verb

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
    • 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. (intransitive) To become finer, purer, or cleaner.
  3. To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.
    • 1913, Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Practical Garden Book
      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. (intransitive, dated) To become gradually fine; to diminish; to dwindle (with away, down, or off).
    • 1882, William Clark Russell, My Watch Below
      I watched her [the ship] […] gradually fining down in the westward until I lost sight of her hull.
Synonyms
Related terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Derived terms
Terms derived from fine - etymology 1
Related terms

Etymology 2

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

Pronunciation

Noun

fine (plural fines)

  2. 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[3]:
      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.
  3. (Cambridge University slang) 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…
Synonyms
Descendants
Translations

Verb

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

  2. (transitive) To issue a fine as punishment to (someone).
    She was fined a thousand dollars for littering, but she appealed.
  3. (intransitive) To pay a fine.
    • 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages
      Men fined for the king's good will; or that he would remit his anger; women fined for leave to marry.
Synonyms
Translations

Related terms

Etymology 3

From Italian fine (“end”). French fin.

Pronunciation

Noun

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.
Usage notes

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

Derived terms

Etymology 4

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

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.

Noun

fine (plural fines)

  1. (obsolete) End; conclusion; termination; extinction.
  2. (feudal law) A final agreement concerning lands or rents between persons, as the lord and his vassal.
    • 1523, Anthony Fitzherbert, The Boke of Surveying and Improvements:
      To cause them to pay more rent or a gretter fyne than they haue ben acustomed to do in tyme past.
  3. (UK, 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.

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for fine in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Anagrams

Asturian fine definition

Verb

fine

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

Danish fine definition

Adjective

fine

  1. plural and definite singular attributive of fin

Esperanto fine definition

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈfine]
  • Audio:
    (file)
  • Rhymes: -ine
  • Hyphenation: fi‧ne

Adverb

fine

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

French fine definition

Pronunciation

Adjective

fine

  1. feminine singular of fin

Noun

fine f (plural fines)

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

Further reading

Futuna-Aniwa fine definition

Noun

fine

  1. woman, female (of any sort)
    fine fau ― young woman
    tiana fine ― his wife
    tiona fine ― his daughter
    fine riki ― mistress

References

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

Ido fine definition

Pronunciation

Adverb

fine

  1. finally

Irish fine definition

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

Noun

fine f (genitive singular fine, nominative plural finte)

  1. family group
    1. race
    2. territory of a family group

Declension

Declension of fine

Fourth declension

Bare forms

Case Singular Plural
Nominative fine finte
Vocative a fhine a fhinte
Genitive fine finte
Dative fine finte

Forms with the definite article

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an fhine na finte
Genitive na fine na bhfinte
Dative leis an bhfine

don fhine

leis na finte

Derived terms

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
fine fhine bhfine
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

  • "fine" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
  • Entries containing “fine” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
  • Entries containing “fine” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

Italian fine definition

Etymology

From Latin fīnis.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈfi.ne/
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -ine
  • Hyphenation: fì‧ne

Adjective

fine (plural fini)

  1. thin
    Synonym: sottile
  2. fine
  3. refined
    Synonym: elegante

Derived terms

Adjective

fine

  1. feminine plural of fino

Noun

fine f (plural fini)

  1. end
    Synonyms: conclusione, finale, termine
    Antonyms: inizio, principio

Noun

fine m (plural fini)

  1. aim, purpose, end
    Synonyms: scopo, obiettivo
    il fine giustifica i mezzi ― the ends justify the means

Related terms

 

Anagrams

Latin fine definition

Pronunciation

Noun

fīne

  1. ablative singular of fīnis

References

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

Manx fine definition

Etymology

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

Noun

fine m (genitive singular fine, plural fineyn)

  1. quiver
  2. sheath, scabbard
    Synonym: laan
  3. (anatomy) vagina
    Synonyms: pihtt, pitt

Synonyms

  • cuinnag

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
fine ine vine
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

North Frisian fine definition

Etymology

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

Verb

fine

  1. (Mooring) to find

Conjugation

Mooring conjugation of fine
infinitive I fine
infinitive II tu finen
infinitive III än fine
past participle fünen
imperative fin
  present past
1st-person singular ik fin ik fün
2nd-person singular dü fanst dü fünst
3rd-person singular hi/jü/et fant hi/jü/et fün
1st-person dual wat fine wat fünen
2nd-person dual jat fine jat fünen
1st-person plural we fine we fünen
2nd-person plural jam fine jam fünen
3rd-person plural ja fine ja fünen
  perfect pluperfect
1st-person singular ik hääw fünen ik häi fünen
2nd-person singular dü hääst fünen dü häist fünen
3rd-person singular hi/jü/et heet fünen hi/jü/et häi fünen
1st-person dual wat hääwe fünen wat häin fünen
2nd-person dual jat hääwe fünen jat häin fünen
1st-person plural we hääwe fünen we häin fünen
2nd-person plural jam hääwe fünen jam häin fünen
3rd-person plural ja hääwe fünen ja häin fünen
  future
1st-person singular ik wård fine
2nd-person singular dü wårst fine
3rd-person singular hi/jü/et wårt fine
1st-person dual wat wårde fine
2nd-person dual jat wårde fine
1st-person plural we wårde fine
2nd-person plural jam wårde fine
3rd-person plural ja wårde fine

Norwegian Bokmål fine definition

Adjective

fine

  1. definite singular of fin
  2. plural of fin

Norwegian Nynorsk fine definition

Adjective

fine

  1. definite singular of fin
  2. plural of fin

Old Irish fine definition

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *wenyā.

Pronunciation

Noun

fine f

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

Inflection

Feminine iā-stem
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative fineL finiL fini
Vocative fineL finiL fini
Accusative finiN finiL fini
Genitive fine fineL fineN
Dative finiL finib finib
Initial mutations of a following adjective:
  • H = triggers aspiration
  • L = triggers lenition
  • N = triggers nasalization

Descendants

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Nasalization
fine ḟine fine
pronounced with /v(ʲ)-/
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

Portuguese fine definition

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: fi‧ne

Verb

fine

  1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of finar
  2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of finar
  3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of finar
  4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of finar

Romanian fine definition

Etymology

From Italian fine, and partly French fin.

Noun

fine f (uncountable)

  1. (literary) end
    Synonym: sfârșit

Derived terms

Spanish fine definition

Pronunciation

Verb

fine

  1. inflection of finar:
    1. first-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular present subjunctive
    3. third-person singular imperative
  2. inflection of finir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Swedish fine definition

Adjective

fine

  1. absolute definite natural masculine singular of fin.

West Frisian fine definition

Etymology

From Old Frisian finda, from Proto-West Germanic *finþan.

Pronunciation

Verb

fine

  1. to find
  2. to decide that, to form the opinion that
    Ik fyn dyn freon moai. ― I find your friend nice.

Inflection

Strong class 3
infinitive fine
3rd singular past fûn
past participle fûn
infinitive fine
long infinitive finen
gerund finen n
auxiliary hawwe
indicative present tense past tense
1st singular fyn fûn
2nd singular fynst fûnst
3rd singular fynt fûn
plural fine fûnen
imperative fyn
participles finend fûn

Further reading

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