overrefined
adjective
over·re·fined
ˌō-vər-ri-ˈfīnd 
: excessively refined
… appears to be attempting to shed his overrefined appearance to demonstrate … he can hurl partisan vitriol with the best of them.—
David Catanese
David Catanese… its clichéd reputation … as the most overrefined, overcivilized, repressed nation on Earth, a place of raised pinkies and cakes …—Russell Smith
Russell SmithOur version switches out the potatoes for yams and the overrefined vegetable oil for coconut oil …—Margaret Floyd and James Barry
Margaret Floyd and James Barry
overrefinement
noun
plural overrefinements
… a boy some seventeen years of age, with his hands all skinned and sore from having picked corn in the cornfield, in those days when a glove was an overrefinement …
—Francis G. Blair
Francis G. Blair
Examples of overrefined in a Sentence
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Jenkins’s overrefined sense of black history — a pageant of fabulous nightmares — is the real extravagance in The Underground Railroad.
—Armond White, National Review, 12 May 2021
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Armond White, National Review, 12 May 2021
Cite this Entry
“Overrefined.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/overrefined. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
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