/ɡɹeɪn/
OriginFrom Middle English greyn, grayn, grein, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin grānum (“seed”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain”). Doublet of corn, gram, granum, and grao.
- uncountableThe harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.
“We stored a thousand tons of grain for the winter.”
- uncountableSimilar seeds from any food crop, e.g., buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
- countableA single seed of grass food crops.
“a grain of wheat”
“grains of oat”
- countable, uncountableThe crops from which grain is harvested.
“The fields were planted with grain.”
“A grain, which in England is generally given to horſes, but which in Scotland ſupports the people.”
- uncountableA linear texture of a material or surface.
“Cut along the grain of the wood.”
“He doesn't like to shave against the grain.”
- countableA single particle of a substance.
“a grain of sand”
“a grain of salt”
- countable, uncountableThe English grain of ¹⁄₅₇₆₀ troy pound or ¹⁄₇₀₀₀ pound avoirdupois, now exactly 64.79891 mg.
- countable, uncountableThe metric, carat, or pearl grain of ¹⁄₄ carat used for measuring precious stones and pearls, now exactly 50 mg.
- countable, historical, uncountableThe French grain of ¹⁄₉₂₁₆ livre, equivalent to 53.11 mg at metricization and equal to exactly 54.25 mg from 1812–1839 as part of the mesures usuelles.
- countable, historicalAny of various small units of length originally notionally based on a grain's width, variously standardized at different places and times.
- countable, historicalThe carat grain of ¹⁄₄ carat as a measure of gold purity, creating a 96-point scale between 0% and 100% purity.
- countable, uncountableA region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
- countable, uncountableThe solid piece of fuel in an individual solid-fuel rocket engine.
- countable, uncountableA reddish dye made from the coccus insect, or kermes; hence, a red color of any tint or hue, as crimson, scarlet, etc.; sometimes used by the poets as equivalent to Tyrian purple.
“all in a robe of darkest grain”
“[…] doing as the dyers do, who, having first dipped their silks in colours of less value, then give them the last tincture of crimson in grain.”
- countable, uncountableThe hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
“The grain of the leather is also sometimes damaged by the filling , by the taking off the hair , and by the river work.”
- countable, in-plural, uncountableThe remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum.
- countable, uncountableA rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
- countable, uncountableTemper; natural disposition; inclination.
“brothers […] not united in grain”
- countable, uncountableVisual texture in processed photographic film due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough photons.
- A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant; an offshoot.
- One of the branches of a valley or river.
- An iron fish spear or harpoon, with a number of points half-barbed inwardly.
“Served 5 lb of fish per man which was caught by striking with grains”
- A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
- An arm of a cross.
- A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.
- dialectalA branch or arm of a stream, inlet, or sea.
- dialectalA fork in a river valley or ravine.
- dialectalThe branch of a family; clan.
- dialectalThe groin; crotch.
- dialectalThe fangs of a tooth.
- transitiveTo feed grain to.
“He said that no man loved his horses, unless his own hands grained them. Every Christmas he gave them brimming measures.”
- transitiveTo make granular; to form into grains.
- intransitiveTo form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.
- To texture a surface in imitation of the grain of a substance such as wood.
- To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
- To soften leather.
- To yield fruit.
- A village in Isle of Grain parish, Isle of Grain, Medway borough, Kent, England (OS grid ref TQ8876).
- A surname.
Formsgrains(plural) · grains(present, singular, third-person) · graining(participle, present) · grained(participle, past) · grained(past) · grane(alternative)