subtilize

Hecht refined and subtilized the banter of the old screwball comedies into ironic japery, and Hitchcock directed with an unparalleled mastery of sexual tension.

The spiritual comprehension may be infinitely subtilized, but the raw material it operates upon must remain.

But the men's shoddy is merely a horror, whereas woman transfigures and subtilizes the cheap material.

The risk in subtilizing stage character lies just here.

Theosophy—and a large share of what is called theology—is simply a refining and subtilizing of mythology.