GRAIN


Meaning of GRAIN in English

n. & v.

--n.

1. a fruit or seed of a cereal.

2 a (collect.) wheat or any allied grass used as food, corn. b (collect.) their fruit. c any particular species of corn.

3 a a small hard particle of salt, sand, etc. b a discrete particle or crystal, usu. small, in a rock or metal. c a piece of solid propellant for use in a rocket engine.

4 the smallest unit of weight in the troy system (equivalent to 1/480 of an ounce), and in the avoirdupois system (equivalent to 1/437.5 of an ounce).

5 the smallest possible quantity (not a grain of truth in it).

6 a roughness of surface. b Photog. a granular appearance on a photograph or negative.

7 the texture of skin, wood, stone, etc.; the arrangement and size of constituent particles.

8 a a pattern of lines of fibre in wood or paper. b lamination or planes of cleavage in stone, coal, etc.

9 nature, temper, tendency.

10 a hist. kermes or cochineal, or dye made from either of these. b poet. dye; colour.

--v.

1. tr. paint in imitation of the grain of wood or marble.

2 tr. give a granular surface to.

3 tr. dye in grain.

4 tr. & intr. form into grains.

5 tr. remove hair from (hides).

Phrases and idioms:

against the grain contrary to one's natural inclination or feeling. grain-leather leather dressed with grain-side out. grain-side the side of a hide on which the hair was. grains of Paradise capsules of a W. African plant (Aframomum melegueta), used as a spice and a drug. in grain thorough, genuine, by nature, downright, indelible.

Derivatives:

grained adj. (also in comb.). grainer n. grainless adj.

Etymology: ME f. OF f. L granum

Oxford English vocab.      Оксфордский английский словарь.