grain

plural grains

1. uncountableThe harvested seeds of various grass food crops, especially wheat, maize, rye, barley, and rice.

   Near-synonym: corn (broad sense, maize and others)

   1 more example

   We stored a thousand tons of grain for the winter.

   Synonyms: cereal, corn

2. uncountableSimilar seeds from any food crop, e.g., buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.

   Near-synonym: corn (broad sense, maize and others)

   Synonyms: corn

3. countableA single seed of a food crop, especially a cereal grass crop.

   grains of oat

   1 more example

   a grain of wheat

   Synonyms: corn

4. countableuncountableThe crops from which grain is harvested.

   The fields were planted with grain.

   1 more example

   A grain, which in England is generally given to horſes, but which in Scotland ſupports the people.

   1755 April 15, Samuel Johnson, “Oats”, in A Dictionary of the English Language: […], volume II (L–Z), London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton; […], →OCLC, column 1

5. uncountableA linear texture of a material or surface.

   Cut along the grain of the wood.

   1 more example

   He doesn't like to shave against the grain.

6. countableA single particle of a substance.

   a grain of sand

   1 more example

   a grain of salt

7. Any of various small units of mass originally notionally based on grain's weight, variously standardized at different places and times, including:
   1. countableuncountableThe English grain of ¹⁄₅₇₆₀ troy pound or ¹⁄₇₀₀₀ pound avoirdupois, now exactly 64.79891 mg.

      Synonyms: troy grain

   2. countableuncountableThe metric, carat, or pearl grain of ¹⁄₄ carat used for measuring precious stones and pearls, now exactly 50 mg.
   3. countablehistoricaluncountableThe 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.
8. countablehistoricalAny of various small units of length originally notionally based on a grain's width, variously standardized at different places and times.
9. countablehistoricalThe carat grain of ¹⁄₄ carat as a measure of gold purity, creating a 96-point scale between 0% and 100% purity.
10. countableuncountablematerialsA region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
11. countableuncountableaerospaceThe solid piece of fuel in an individual solid-fuel rocket engine.
12. countableuncountableA 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

    1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “Penseroso”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC

    1 more example

    […] 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.

    a. 1825, Quoted by Coleridge, preface to Aids to Reflection

13. countableuncountableThe 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.

    1773, Royal Dublin Society, The Art of Tanning and of Currying Leather

14. countablein pluraluncountableThe remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum.

    Synonyms: draff

15. countableuncountablebiologyA rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
16. countableuncountableTemper; natural disposition; inclination.

    brothers […] not united in grain

    a. 1628 (date written), John Hayward, The Life, and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press, and J. Lichfield at Oxford?] for Iohn Partridge, […], published 1630, →OCLC

17. countableuncountableartsVisual 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.
18. countableuncountableA tiny fragment of a digital audio recording, used in granular synthesis to create new sounds or textures.

present singular third person grains · participle present graining · participle past grained · past grained

1. 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.

   1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities

2. transitiveTo make granular; to form into grains.
3. intransitiveTo form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.
4. To texture a surface in imitation of the grain of a substance such as wood.
5. To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
6. To soften leather.
7. To yield fruit.

plural grains · alternative grane

1. A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant; an offshoot.
2. A tine, prong, or fork.
   1. One of the branches of a valley or river.
   2. 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

      4 May 1770, Stephen Forwood (gunner on H.M. Bark Endeavour), journal (quoted by Parkin (page 195)

   3. A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
   4. An arm of a cross.
3. foundingA thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.
4. dialectalA branch or arm of a stream, inlet, or sea.
5. dialectalA fork in a river valley or ravine.
6. dialectalThe branch of a family; clan.
7. dialectalanatomyThe groin; crotch.
8. dialectalanatomyThe fangs of a tooth.

1. A village in Isle of Grain parish, Isle of Grain, Medway borough, Kent, England (OS grid ref TQ8876).
2. A surname.