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