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Refine speech not refined before (2,3,8,2)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

in the presence of

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'refine speech' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'not refined before' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'not' could be 'nt' (synonyms) and 'nt' is found in the answer.
'before' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.
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