fine vs reprisal

fine

noun
  • A fee levied as punishment for breaking the law. 

  • Something that is fine; fine particles. 

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

  • A drink that must be taken during a meal or as part of a drinking game, following an announcement that anyone who has done some (usually outrageous) deed is to be fined; similar to I have never; commonly associated with swaps; very similar to a sconce at Oxford University, though a fine is the penalty itself rather than the act of issuing it. 

  • The end of a musical composition. 

  • 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 champagne; French brandy. 

  • The location in a musical score that indicates the end of the piece, particularly when the piece ends somewhere in the middle of the score due to a section of the music being repeated. 

verb
  • To issue a fine as punishment to (someone). 

  • To make finer, purer, or cleaner; to purify or clarify. 

  • To become finer, purer, or cleaner. 

  • To make finer, or less coarse, as in bulk, texture, etc. 

  • To clarify (wine and beer) by filtration. 

  • To change by fine gradations. 

  • To pay a fine. 

adj
  • Of superior quality. 

  • Consisting of especially minute particulates; made up of particularly small pieces. 

  • Being acceptable, adequate, passable, or satisfactory. 

  • Made of slender or thin filaments. 

  • Impressively bad, inappropriate, or unsatisfactory. 

  • An answer often used to cover an unnecessary explanation, rather to avoid conflict or an argument. Saying "I'm fine" can be used to avoid inquiry when the speaker is not really okay. 

  • Of a particular grade of quality, usually between very good and very fine, and below mint. 

  • Particularly slender; especially thin, narrow, or of small girth. 

  • Having a (specified) proportion of pure metal in its composition. 

  • Good-looking, attractive. 

  • Subtle, delicately balanced or discriminated. 

  • Sunny and not raining. 

  • Behind the batsman and at a small angle to the line between the wickets. 

  • Delicate; subtle; exquisite; artful; dexterous. 

adv
  • Well, nicely, in a positive, agreeable way. 

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

  • Expression of (typically) reluctant or agreement. 

reprisal

noun
  • An act of retaliation. 

How often have the words fine and reprisal occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )