fine

Adjective

fine (comparative finer, superlative finest)

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.

   Synonyms:

   good, excellent

2. (ironic) Impressively bad, inappropriate, or unsatisfactory.
   • You're a fine one to talk about laziness.
   • Here's another fine mess you've gotten us into.

   Synonyms:

   hell of a

3. (informal) Being acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory; having one's well-being be no cause for concern.
   • How are you today? – Fine.
   • Will this one do? It's got a dent in it. – Yeah, it'll be fine, I guess.

   Synonyms:

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

4. (informal) Good-looking, attractive.
   • That man is so fine that I'd jump into his pants without a moment's hesitation.
   • 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...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
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. (obsolete) Showy; overdecorated.
   • 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 writing1853, Matthew Arnold, Preface to The Poems of Matthew Arnold
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.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]...
   • 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
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.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
11. 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, fine-grain, powdered, powdery, pulverised, pulverized, small-grained

    Antonyms:

    coarse

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.
    • 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

Adverb

fine (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. (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 (1)

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

Verb (1)

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.

   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 furrows1913, 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
   • 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. (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.1882, William Clark Russell, My Watch Below

Noun (2)

IPA/faɪn/

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.
   • 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. (obsolete) Money paid by a tenant on the commencement of a tenancy so that their rent may be small or nominal.
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…

Verb (2)

IPA/faɪn/

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.
   • 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

Noun (3)

IPA/ˈfiːneɪ/

fine (plural 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 (3)

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

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

Noun (4)

fine (plural fines)

1. (obsolete) End; conclusion; termination; extinction.
   • And secret feare, to see their fatall fine1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 37
   • 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...
2. (feudal law) 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.1523, Anthony Fitzherbert, The Boke of Surveying and Improvements
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 capitalized: Fine

Fine (plural Fines)

1. A surname.