ingrain

present singular third person ingrains · participle present ingraining · participle past ingrained · past ingrained · alternative engrain

1. transitiveTo dye with a fast or lasting colour.
2. figurativelytransitiveTo make (something) deeply part of something else.

   The dirt was deeply ingrained in the carpet.

   1 more example

   The lessons I learned at school were firmly ingrained in my mind.

   Synonyms: breed in the bone, embed, infix, instill, radicate

alternative engrain

1. not comparableDyed with grain, or kermes.
2. not comparableDyed before manufacture; said of the material of a textile fabric.
3. broadlyfigurativelynot comparableThoroughly inwrought; forming an essential part of the substance.

   When were such changes ever made in men's natural relations to one another: when was such reconcilement of ingrain differences ever effected!

   1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, 1st book (Poverty), page 249

plural ingrains · alternative engrain

1. An ingrain fabric, such as a carpet.