ppl. a. [f. FINE a. and adv. + drawn, pa. pple. of DRAW.
When used attrib. it may have chief stress on first syll.]
Drawn fine; drawn out to extreme thinness, tenuity or subtlety, lit. and fig. Also in Racing and Athletics: Reduced in weight or fat by exercise and ‘training.’
1840. Blaine, Encycl. Rural Shorts, IV. vi. § 1699. 484. He may go through a very long and severe run, and yet return comparatively but little finer drawn than when he went out.
1869. E. A. Parkes, A Manual of Practical Hygiene (ed. 3), 387. Many men are ‘overtrained,’ i.e., too fine-drawn from absorption of fat, and few men can remain in high training for any length of time.
1876. T. S. Egan, trans. Heine’s Atta Troll, etc., 249.
| Were dreaming: ‘the fine-drawn aristocrats | |
| From hence will soon be starting; | |
| And long iron bottles shall give to them, | |
| The stirrup-cup at parting!’ |
1884. R. Marryat, ‘Sanitary Aid,’ in 19th Cent., May, 840. They are heart-sick and weary from struggling against that fine-drawn network of circumstance and daily environment, which is so far harder a battle to fight than any single crushing disaster.
1887. H. Smart, Cleverly Won, ii. 14. She was in training, and rather fine drawn to boot.
1887. Lowell, Democr., 23. The day of sentiment was over, and no dithyrambic affirmations or fine-drawn analyses of the Rights of Man would serve their present turn.
1888. Elworthy, W. Somerset Word-bk. That story is too fine-drawn—i. e. grossly exaggerated.
