In music notation, fine (pronounced "FEE-nay") is written above the staff and indicates the end of a repeated section. The word simply means "end" in Italian. It is used in conjunction with the da capo or dal segno notation when the composer doesn't want to repeat all the way to the end, only to partway through the piece.

When used with a da capo al fine marking, it looks like this (complete with staff, time signature, and a quarter note scale):


    /\                                               fine
---| /----------------------------|---------------------|
   |/                             |        |            |
---/------------------------------|---|----|------------|
  /|     4                     |  |   |    |        *   |
-/-|/\--------------------|----|--|---|----|---*---|----|
|  |  |  4           |    |    |  |   |   *   |    |    |
|--|--|--------|-----|----|----|--|--*--------|----|----|
 \ |  |        |     |    |   *   |           |    |    |
--\|_/---------|-----|---*--------|-----------|---------|
   |           |    *                                    
  \|         -*--             

    /\                                        D.C. al fine
---| /----------------------------|---------------------||
   |/                          |  |                     ||
---/------------*--------------|--|---|-----------------||
  /|           |     *         |  |   |   |             ||
-/-|/\---------|----|-----*----|--|---|---|----|--------||
|  |  |        |    |    |    *   |   |   |    |   |    ||
|--|--|--------|----|----|--------|--*----|----|---|----||
 \ |  |             |    |        |      *     |   |    ||
--\|_/-------------------|--------|-----------*----|----||
   |                                              *      
  \|                          

Finagle's Law = F = finger

fine adj.

[WPI] Good, but not good enough to be cuspy. The word `fine' is used elsewhere, of course, but without the implicit comparison to the higher level implied by cuspy.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Track number 11 on James' eleventh album Pleased to Meet You. The track combines a light, fun shuffling rhythm with light fun lyrics. The lyrics seem to describe a circle around what it was like to be Tim Booth at the time the album was being fashioned - Tim was on the cusp of the decision to leave the band, a decision he announced in October 2001, half way through the Getting Away With It Tour.

The song intones confusion and a series of seemingly unrelated images, and yet comes back to the insistantly upbeat refrain: "I feel fine"

Fine

I'm a boomerang
In the outback
Keep your throwing arm steady
So I get home
I'm a vampire bat
Out in Shanghai
Haven't eaten in four days
I've ordered in a Chinese takeaway

I show more than I hide
I care more than I cry
I'm a phonograph baby
My wires are live
And I'm in crisscross

Fine. I feel fine.

I'm a fortune cookie
Full of cheap advice
I'm a suicide rookie
Blowing last call

Show more than I hide
Care more than I can cry
I'm a phonograph baby
My wires are live
And I'm in crisscross

Fine. I feel fine.

Fine (fIn), a. [Compar. Finer (?); superl. Finest.] [F. fin, LL. finus fine, pure, fr. L. finire to finish; cf. finitus, p. p., finished, completed (hence the sense accomplished, perfect.) See Finish, and cf. Finite.]

1.

Finished; brought to perfection; refined; hence, free from impurity; excellent; superior; elegant; worthy of admiration; accomplished; beautiful.

The gain thereof [is better] than fine gold.
Prov. iii. 14.

A cup of wine that's brisk and fine.
Shak.

Not only the finest gentleman of his time, but one of the finest scholars.
Felton.

To soothe the sick bed of so fine a being [Keats].
Leigh Hunt.

2.

Aiming at show or effect; loaded with ornament; overdressed or overdecorated; showy.

He gratified them with occasional . . . fine writing.
M. Arnold.

3.

Nice; delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; skillful; dexterous.

The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine!
Pope.

The nicest and most delicate touches of satire consist in fine raillery.
Dryden.

He has as fine a hand at picking a pocket as a woman.
T. Gray.

4.

Not coarse, gross, or heavy; as:

(a)

Not gross; subtile; thin; tenous.

The eye standeth in the finer medium and the object in the grosser.
Bacon.

(b)

Not coarse; comminuted; in small particles; as, fine sand or flour.

(c)

Not thick or heavy; slender; filmy; as, a fine thread.

(d)

Thin; attenuate; keen; as, a fine edge.

(e)

Made of fine materials; light; delicate; as, fine linen or silk.

5.

Having (such) a proportion of pure metal in its composition; as, coins nine tenths fine.

6.

(Used ironically.)

Ye have made a fine hand, fellows.
Shak.

Fine is often compounded with participles and adjectives, modifying them adverbially; a, fine-drawn, fine-featured, fine-grained, fine-spoken, fine-spun, etc.

Fine arch (Glass Making), the smaller fritting furnace of a glasshouse. Knight. --
Fine arts. See the Note under Art. --
Fine cut, fine cut tobacco; a kind of chewing tobacco cut up into shreds. --
Fine goods, woven fabrics of fine texture and quality. McElrath. --
Fine stuff, lime, or a mixture of lime, plaster, etc., used as material for the finishing coat in plastering. --
To sail fine (Naut.), to sail as close to the wind as possible.

Syn. -- Fine, Beautiful. When used as a word of praise, fine (being opposed to coarse) denotes no "ordinary thing of its kind." It is not as strong as beautiful, in reference to the single attribute implied in the latter term; but when we speak of a fine woman, we include a greater variety of particulars, viz., all the qualities which become a woman, -- breeding, sentiment, tact, etc. The term is equally comprehensive when we speak of a fine garden, landscape, horse, poem, etc.; and, though applied to a great variety of objects, the word has still a very definite sense, denoting a high degree of characteristic excellence.

 

© Webster 1913


Fine, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fined (fInd); p. pr. & vb. n. Fining.] [From Fine, a.]

1.

To make fine; to refine; to purify, to clarify; as, to fine gold.

It hath been fined and refined by . . . learned men.
Hobbes.

2.

To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc.; as. to fine the soil. L. H. Bailey.

3.

To change by fine gradations; as (Naut.), to fine down a ship's lines, to diminish her lines gradually.

I often sate at home
On evenings, watching how they fined themselves
With gradual conscience to a perfect night.
Browning.

 

© Webster 1913


Fine (?), n. [OE. fin, L. finis end, also in LL., a final agreement or concord between the lord and his vassal; a sum of money paid at the end, so as to make an end of a transaction, suit, or prosecution; mulct; penalty; cf. OF. fin end, settlement, F. fin end. See Finish, and cf. Finance.]

1.

End; conclusion; termination; extinction. [Obs.] "To see their fatal fine." Spenser.

Is this the fine of his fines?
Shak.

2.

A sum of money paid as the settlement of a claim, or by way of terminating a matter in dispute; especially, a payment of money imposed upon a party as a punishment for an offense; a mulct.

3. (Law)

(a) (Feudal Law)

A final agreement concerning lands or rents between persons, as the lord and his vassal. Spelman.

(b) (Eng. 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.

Fine for alienation (Feudal Law), a sum of money paid to the lord by a tenant whenever he had occasion to make over his land to another. Burrill. --
Fine of lands, a species of conveyance in the form of a fictitious suit compromised or terminated by the acknowledgment of the previous owner that such land was the right of the other party. Burrill. See Concord, n., 4. --
In fine, in conclusion; by way of termination or summing up.

 

© Webster 1913


Fine, v. t. [From Fine, n.]

To impose a pecuniary penalty upon for an offense or breach of law; to set a fine on by judgment of a court; to punish by fine; to mulct; as, the trespassers were fined ten dollars.

 

© Webster 1913


Fine, v. i.

To pay a fine. See Fine, n., 3 (b). [R.]

Men fined for the king's good will; or that he would remit his anger; women fined for leave to marry.
Hallam.

 

© Webster 1913


Fine, v. t. & i. [OF. finer, F. finir. See Finish, v. t.]

To finish; to cease; or to cause to cease. [Obs.]

 

© Webster 1913


Fine (?), adv.

1.

Finely; well; elegantly; fully; delicately; mincingly. [Obs., Dial., or Colloq.]

2. (Billiards & Pool)

In a manner so that the driven ball strikes the object ball so far to one side as to be deflected but little, the object ball being driven to one side.

 

© Webster 1913


Fine (fIn), v. i.

To become fine (in any one of various senses); as, the ale will fine; the weather fined.

To fine away, down, off, gradually to become fine; to diminish; to dwindle.

I watched her [the ship] . . . gradually fining down in the westward until I lost of her hull.
W. C. Russel.

 

© Webster 1913

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