fineness
(ˈfaɪnnɪs)
[f. fine a. + -ness.]
The quality or state of being fine.
1. a. Choice or superior quality.
| c 1400 Test. Love ii. (1560) 291/1 Margarite..sheweth in it selfe by fineness of colour, whether [etc.]. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. 3 The fynenesse of the grasse. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xii. 515 For finenesse of her turfe surpassing. 1847 Tennyson Princ. ii. 133 Some men's [heads] were small; not they the least of men; For often fineness compensated size. |
† b. concr. Articles of good quality. Obs.
| 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 40 Such other like costly furniture and fineness. |
2. Freedom from foreign admixture, purity. a. in metals: generally in the sense of comparative freedom from alloy; now spec. the number of parts per thousand of gold or silver in an alloy.
| 1487 Act 4 Hen. VII, c. 2 Pream., It causeth Money..to be made worse in Fineness than it should be. 1555 Eden Decades 38 Of lyke finenes to that wherof the florenes are coyned. 1638 Penkethman Artach. K iv, The finenesse of their Coine, which did farre exceed ours. 1704 Royal Procl. 18 June in Lond. Gaz. No. 4029/1 The Currency of all Pieces..shall..stand Regulated, according to their Weight and Fineness. 1843 Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 3) 74 In estimating or expressing the fineness of gold, the whole mass spoken of is supposed to weigh 24 carats. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 640 The money of the kingdom should be recoined according to the old standard..of fineness. 1862 G. H. Makins Man. Metallurgy viii. 144 From numerous examinations of the quality of the fine silver..the author finds that the average fineness is about 998 parts in the thousand. 1957 Encycl. Brit. II. 555/2 The gold present is reported as so many parts of gold in 1,000 parts of alloy. This is called ‘Fineness’, and British gold coinage is said to be ‘916·6 fine’. |
b. Of a liquid: Clearness.
| 1657 Howell Londinop. 13 The finenesse of the River. 1664 Evelyn Pomona Gen. Advt. (1729) 87 Broach the Vessel..and see what Fineness it is of. |
3. Fine or striking appearance, handsomeness. Of dress: Showiness, splendour.
| 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 14 The chiefe cytie..is in situacion and fynenes much lyke vnto the cytie of Milayne. 1667 Decay Chr. Piety v. 87 The fineness of Cloaths destroys the ease. a 1704 T. Brown Praise Wealth Wks. 1730 I. 84 The fineness of his address. 1719 London & Wise Compl. Gard. p. xxv, In the beauty and fineness of the Trees. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xvi. v, He greatly admired the fineness of the dresses. 1841 L. Hunt Seer ii. (1864) 76 He wrote to the Prince of Orange upon the fineness of his troops. |
4. a. Slenderness, tenuity, thinness. Of a point or edge: Keenness, sharpness.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe ii. (1540) 17/1 By fourme is vnderstand grossenesse, fynenesse, thicknesse, or thynnesse. 1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 69 Litotes, λιτότης..smalness or finenesse, derived from λιτός (litos..small or fine). 1703 Moxon Mech. Exerc. 193 A Screw, whose Thread shall be of the same fineness that the Screw and the Shank is of. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 352 The wire is..then in the proper state for being reduced to the utmost degree of fineness it is capable of sustaining. 1837 Landor Pentameron Wks. 1846 II. 312 As little as a silkworm knows about the fineness of her thread. |
b. fineness ratio Naut. and Aeronaut. (see quot. 1915).
| 1911 Reports & Mem. (Adv. Comm. Aeronaut.) No. 43. 58 With a view to deciding upon the best fineness ratio for a non⁓rigid airship, the same calculation has been made for the case of constant net lift. 1915 W. E. Dommett Submarine Vessels ii. 10 Another matter which has been experimented upon is the value of the ratio between the length divided by the diameter (or width). This ratio is known as the ‘fineness ratio’. 1930 Engineering 8 Aug. 169/1 A streamline body of 5·45 fineness ratio. |
5. The quality of being composed of fine particles, filaments, threads, or material in general: the opposite of coarseness.
| 1634 Sir T. Herbert Trav. 182 Taffataes of transparent finenesse. 1770 Chesterfield Misc. Wks. II. lxix. 538 Irish linen..much about the same fineness and price of the last. 1846 McCulloch Acc. Brit. Empire (1854) I. 505 Without injuring the fineness of the fleece. 1860 Ruskin Mod. Paint. V. ix. vii. 268 Fineness of structure in the body..renders it capable of the most delicate sensation. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IX. 158 The degree of fineness to which this grinding is carried varies. |
6. a. Of immaterial things, e.g. of thought and speech: Subtly-refined quality, delicacy, subtlety.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 209 Those that with the finenesse of their soules, By Reason guide his execution. 1607 R. C. World of Wonders To the Reader A iv, The finenesse, fitnesse, and featnesse of the phrase. 1654 Jer. Taylor Real Pres. 205 It were a finenesse of Spirit to be able to believe the two parts of a contradiction. 1689–90 Temple Ess. Learning Wks. 1731 I. 167 That Language [the French] has much more Fineness and Smoothness at this Time. 1718 Prior Wks. Pref., The Softness of Her Sex, and the Fineness of Her Genius, conspire to give Her a very distinguishing Character. 1780 F. Burney Diary Apr., He..played with a fineness that resembled the man we looked at at Piozzi's benefit. 1856 Masson Ess. x. 452 Those peculiar finenesses and flights of intellectual activity which are native to verse. 1878 E. Jenkins Haverholme 98 The delicate fineness and fragrance of her flattery. |
b. A nice or subtle point or matter; a subtlety.
| 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. ii. ii. 17 Thinking that..there was no need of these finenesses and niceties betweene them. a 1716 South Serm. Extemp. Prayers (1737) II. iv. 130 In matters of wit, and finenesses of imagination. |
7. Subtlety, astuteness, cunning; a stratagem, artifice. Cf. finesse 3, 4. Now rare.
| 1546 St. Papers Hen. VIII, XI. 374 He said that the fynenesse of the Frenchemen was suche, that they wold gyve a thowsande to wynne a myllion. 1581 T. Howell Deuises (1879) 233 Your curious hed may finenesse frame. 1658 Cleveland Rustick Rampant (1687) 469 By this Fineness they are gained to quit the Gates. 1663 Flagellum; or O. Cromwell (1672) 55 For his party had tryed all ways to over-reach the Presbyterean with fineness and Artifice. 1685 H. More Cursory Refl. A 1 a. Against all the Finenesses of Rome. 1872 Tennyson Gareth & Lynette, And so fill up the gap where force might fail With skill and fineness. |