Wiktionary
(alternative spelling of rarefied English) v
(en-past of: rarify)
WordNet
adj. having low density; "rare gasses"; "lightheaded from the rarefied mountain air" [syn: rare, rarefied]
reserved for an elite group [syn: rarefied]
of high moral or intellectual value; elevated in nature or style; "an exalted ideal"; "argue in terms of high-flown ideals"- Oliver Franks; "a noble and lofty concept" [syn: exalted, high-flown, high-minded, lofty, rarefied, idealistic, noble-minded]
Usage examples of "rarified".
Solicitors breathed the same rarified air as business colleagues and accountants.
Save for the freshness of early summer, with its background of green and the rarified atmosphere of the elevated plain, the scene before us might be compared to a winter drift of buffalo, ten years previous.
In the rarified atmosphere of the high mountains, these beasts can only carry 120 pounds - less than the weight of two of those granite discs.
Our contest will be on a more rarified plane, and my life will not be in danger.
After all, she had never left the parish in her life, seldom even left Treymoor, while her aunt had been married, had traveled, and now moved among a circle that, while not the highest, at least nudged into rarified air.
Some captains wanted no part of it, preferring to stay down on the naval bases or at shore staffs after their captain sea commands, avoiding the rarified air of the three- and four-star front offices throughout the Navy.
Goodness is respect that has been rarified and taken to a higher level.
Alys guided her to the ladies' lavatory, an object of hourly interest to their pregnancy-crowded bladders, and introduced her on the return journey to several more women of her rarified social circle.