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financial year.
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FINE.
Synonyms:
beautiful, excellent, polished, small, clarified, exquisite, pure, smooth, clear, gauzy, refined, splendid,
comminuted, handsome, sensitive, subtile, dainty, keen, sharp, subtle, delicate, minute, slender, tenuous,
elegant, nice, slight, thin.
Fine (L. finis, end) denotes that which has been brought to a full end, finished. From this root-sense many
derived meanings branch out, causing words quite remote from each other to be alike synonyms of fine. That
which is truly finished, brought to an ideal end, is excellent of its kind, and beautiful, if a thing that admits of
beauty; as, a fine house, fine trees, a fine woman, a fine morning; if a thing that admits of the removal of
impurities, it is not finished till these are removed, and hence fine signifies clarified, clear, pure, refined; as,
fine gold. That which is finished is apt to be polished, smooth to the touch, minutely exact in outline; hence
fine comes to be a synonym for all words like dainty, delicate, exquisite; as, fine manners, a fine touch, fine
perceptions. As that which is delicate is apt to be small, by an easy extension of meaning fine becomes a
synonym for slender, slight, minute, comminuted; as, a fine thread, fine sand; or for filmy, tenuous, thin; as, a
fine lace, fine wire; and as a thin edge is keen, sharp, fine becomes also a synonym for these words; as, a fine
point, a fine edge. Compare BEAUTIFUL; MINUTE.
Antonyms:
big, clumsy, great, huge, large, stout, blunt, coarse, heavy, immense, rude, thick.
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FIRE.
Synonyms:
blaze, burning, combustion, conflagration, flame.
Combustion is the essential fact which is at the basis of that assemblage of visible phenomenon which we call
fire; combustion being the continuous chemical combination of a substance with some element, as oxygen,
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
145
evolving heat, and extending from slow processes, such as those by which the heat of the human body is
maintained, to the processes producing the most intense light also, as in a blast-furnace, or on the surface of
the sun. Fire is always attended with light, as well as heat; blaze, flame, etc., designate the mingled light and
heat of a fire. Combustion is the scientific, fire the popular term. A conflagration is an extensive fire.
Compare LIGHT.
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FLOCK.
Synonyms:
bevy, covey, group, herd, lot, set, brood, drove, hatch, litter, pack, swarm.
Group is the general word for any gathering of a small number of objects, whether of persons, animals, or
inanimate things. The individuals in a brood or litter are related to each other; those in the other groups may
not be. Brood is used chiefly of fowls and birds, litter of certain quadrupeds which bring forth many young at
a birth; we speak of a brood of chickens, a litter of puppies; brood is sometimes applied to a family of young
children. Bevy is used of birds, and figuratively of any bright and lively group of women or children, but
rarely of men. Flock is applied to birds and to some of the smaller animals; herd is confined to the larger
animals; we speak of a bevy of quail, a covey of partridges, a flock of blackbirds, or a flock of sheep, a herd of
cattle, horses, buffaloes, or elephants, a pack of wolves, a pack of hounds, a swarm of bees. A collection of
animals driven or gathered for driving is called a drove.
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FLUCTUATE.
Synonyms:
hesitate, swerve, vacillate, veer, oscillate, undulate, vary, waver.
To fluctuate (L. fluctus, a wave) is to move like a wave with alternate rise and fall. A pendulum oscillates;
waves fluctuate or undulate; a light or a flame wavers; a frightened steed swerves from his course; a tool or
weapon swerves from the mark or line; the temperature varies; the wind veers when it suddenly changes its
direction. That which veers may steadily hold the new direction; that which oscillates, fluctuates, undulates,
or wavers returns upon its way. As regards mental states, he who hesitates sticks (L. hærere) on the verge of
decision; he who wavers does not stick to a decision; he who vacillates decides now one way, and now
another; one vacillates between contrasted decisions or actions; he may waver between decision and
indecision, or between action and inaction. Persons hesitate, vacillate, waver; feelings fluctuate or vary.
Compare SHAKE.
Antonyms:
abide, adhere, hold fast, persist, stand fast, stay, stick.
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FLUID.
Synonyms:
Synonyms and Antonyms, by James Champlin Fernald
146
gas, liquid.
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