fine

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See also: finé and fíne

Contents

English[edit]

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Etymology 1[edit]

From Middle English fin, from Old French fin (“fine, minute, exact”), probably, from Latin finitus (“literally finished (used as an adjective by Cicero, of words, well rounded)”), past participle of fīnīre (“to limit, bound, define, terminate, finish”), from finis (“a limit, end”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fine (comparative finer, superlative finest)

  1. (heading) Of 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.
      • 1915, Emerson Hough, The Purchase Price, chapterI:
        "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."
      • 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.
      • Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)
        He gratified them with occasional […] fine writing.
    6. Delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; dexterous.
      • Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
        The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
      • John Dryden (1631-1700)
        The nicest and most delicate touches of satire consist in fine raillery.
      • Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
        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. (heading) Of 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.
      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.
    • Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
      The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser.
Synonyms[edit]
Antonyms[edit]
  • (made up of particularly small pieces): coarse
  • (made of slender or thin filaments): coarse
Translations[edit]
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 Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adverb[edit]

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, 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.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

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

See also[edit]

Verb[edit]

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.
Synonyms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]
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 Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from "fine" - etymology 1

Related terms[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Old French fin (“end”), from Medieval Latin finis (“a payment in settlement or tax”)

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[1]:
      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.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

From Italian fine ("end").

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

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[edit]

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

Derived terms[edit]

Etymology 4[edit]

Old French finer, French finir. See finish (transitive verb).

Verb[edit]

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[edit]

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.

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.)

Statistics[edit]

Most common English words before 1923 in Project Gutenberg: evening · ground · understand · #426: fine · law · show · terms

Anagrams[edit]

Asturian[edit]

Verb[edit]

fine

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

Danish[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fine

  1. plural and definite singular attributive of fin

Esperanto[edit]

Adverb[edit]

fine

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

French[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fine

  1. feminine singular of fin

Noun[edit]

fine f (plural fines)

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

Further reading[edit]

Futuna-Aniwa[edit]

Noun[edit]

fine

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

References[edit]

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

Ido[edit]

Adverb[edit]

fine

  1. finally

Irish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

fine f (genitive singular fine, nominative plural finte)

  1. family group

Declension[edit]

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[edit]

Mutation[edit]

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.

Italian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin fīnis.

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fine (masculine and feminine plural fini)

  1. thin
  2. fine
  3. refined

Synonyms[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fine

  1. feminine plural of fino

Noun[edit]

fine f (plural fini)

  1. end

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Noun[edit]

fine m (plural fini)

  1. aim, purpose, end
    il fine giustifica i mezzi - the ends justifies the means

Synonyms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Noun[edit]

fīne

  1. ablative singular of fīnis

References[edit]

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

Manx[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Irish faigen (“sheath, scabbard”), from Latin vāgīna.

Noun[edit]

fine f

  1. quiver
  2. sheath, scabbard
  3. vagina

Synonyms[edit]

North Frisian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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

Verb[edit]

fine

  1. (Mooring Dialect) to find

Conjugation[edit]

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[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fine

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

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fine

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

Old Irish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Celtic *weniyā.

Noun[edit]

fine f

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

Inflection[edit]

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

Descendants[edit]

References[edit]

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

Portuguese[edit]

Verb[edit]

fine

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

Romanian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Italian fine, and partly French fin.

Noun[edit]

fine f (uncountable)

  1. (literary) end

Synonyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Verb[edit]

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.

Swedish[edit]

Adjective[edit]

fine

  1. absolute definite natural masculine form of fin.
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