a refined quality of gracefulness and good taste; "she conveys an aura of elegance and gentility"
a quality of neatness and ingenious simplicity in the solution of a problem (especially in science or mathematics); "the simplicity and elegance of his invention"
a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality; "they performed with great polish"; "I admired the exquisite refinement of his prose"; "almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art"--Joseph Conrad
a preparation used in polishing
of or relating to Poland or its people or culture; "Polish sausage"
bring to a highly developed, finished, or refined state; "polish your social manners"
improve or perfect by pruning or polishing; "refine one's style of writing"
make (a surface) shine; "shine the silver, please"; "polish my shoes"
distribute according to a plan or set apart for a special purpose; "I am allocating a loaf of bread to everyone on a daily basis"; "I'm allocating the rations for the camping trip"
(computer science) the area of the screen in graphical user interfaces against which icons and windows appear
a person's social heritage: previous experience or training; "he is a lawyer with a sports background"
information that is essential to understanding a situation or problem; "the embassy filled him in on the background of the incident"
the part of a scene (or picture) that lies behind objects in the foreground; "he posed her against a background of rolling hills"
relatively unimportant or inconspicuous accompanying situation; "when the rain came he could hear the sound of thunder in the background"
extraneous signals that can be confused with the phenomenon to be observed or measured; "they got a bad connection and could hardly hear one another over the background signals"
understate the importance or quality of; "he played down his royal ancestry"
the raising of plants or animals; "the culture of oysters"
(biology) the growing of microorganisms in a nutrient medium (such as gelatin or agar); "the culture of cells in a Petri dish"
the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group
the attitudes and behavior that are characteristic of a particular social group or organization; "the developing drug culture"; "the reason that the agency is doomed to inaction has something to do with the FBI culture"
a particular society at a particular time and place; "early Mayan civilization"
an arithmetic operation that is the inverse of division; the product of two numbers is computed; "the multiplication of four by three gives twelve"; "four times three equals twelve"
a multiplicative increase; "repeated copying leads to a multiplication of errors"; "this multiplication of cells is a natural correlate of growth"