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grain definition

Overview

This page has 41 definitions of grain with English translations in 4 languages. Grain is a noun and verb. Examples of how to use grain in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: gráin, gràin, gräin, and Grain

English grain definition
Mixed grain—the harvested seeds
A close-up of wood grain—texture of material

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English greyn, grayn, grein, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin grānum (“seed”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain”). Compare English corn. Doublet of gram.

Noun

grain (countable and uncountable, plural grains)

  1. (uncountable) The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.
    We stored a thousand tons of grain for the winter.
  2. (uncountable) Similar seeds from any food crop, e.g., buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
  3. (countable) A single seed of grass food crops.
    a grain of wheat
    grains of oat
  4. (countable, uncountable) The crops from which grain is harvested.
    The fields were planted with grain.
  5. (uncountable) A linear texture of a material or surface.
    Cut along the grain of the wood.
    He doesn't like to shave against the grain.
  6. (countable) A single particle of a substance.
    a grain of sand
    a grain of salt
  7. (countable) A very small unit of weight, in England equal to 1⁄480 of an ounce troy, 0.0648 grams or, to be more exact, 64.79891 milligrams (0.002285714 avoirdupois ounce). A carat grain or pearl grain is 1⁄4 carat or 50 milligrams. The old French grain was 1⁄9216 livre or 53.11 milligrams, and in the mesures usuelles permitted from 1812 to 1839, with the livre redefined as 500 grams, it was 54.25 milligrams.
  8. (countable) A former unit of gold purity, also known as carat grain, equal to 1⁄4 "carat" (karat).
  9. (materials) A region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
  10. (astronautics) The solid piece of fuel in an individual solid-fuel rocket engine.
  11. A 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.
    • 1646 (indicated as 1645)​, John Milton, “Penseroso”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], OCLC 606951673:
      all in a robe of darkest grain
    • a. 1825, Quoted by Coleridge, preface to Aids to Reflection:
      […] 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.
  12. The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
    • 1773, Royal Dublin Society, The Art of Tanning and of Currying Leather:
      The grain of the leather is also sometimes damaged by the filling , by the taking off the hair , and by the river work.
  13. (in the plural) The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.
  14. (botany) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
  15. Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
    • 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 1287143827:
      brothers […] not united in grain
  16. (photography, videography) Visual 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.
Derived terms
Related terms
 
Translations
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See also

Verb

grain (third-person singular simple present grains, present participle graining, simple past and past participle grained)

  1. To feed grain to.
  2. (transitive) To make granular; to form into grains.
  3. (intransitive) To 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. (tanning) To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
  6. (tanning) To soften leather.
  7. To yield fruit.
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English grayn, from Old Norse grein.

Noun

grain (plural grains)

  1. A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant.
  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.
      • 4 May 1770, Stephen Forwood (gunner on H.M. Bark Endeavour), journal (quoted by Parkin (page 195)
        Served 5 lb of fish per man which was caught by striking with grains
    3. A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
  3. (founding) A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.

Further reading

Anagrams

French grain definition

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle French, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin grānum, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm.

Noun

grain m (plural grains)

  1. grain
  2. (figuratively) a small amount, a bit
Derived terms
Related terms

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

grain m (plural grains)

  1. (nautical) squall, thunderstorm
Derived terms
 

Anagrams

Further reading

Middle English grain definition

Verb

grain

  1. Alternative form of greynen

Old French grain definition

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin grānum.

Noun

grain m (oblique plural grainz, nominative singular grainz, nominative plural grain)

  1. grain (edible part of a cereal plant)
    • circa 1120, Philippe de Taon, Bestiaire, line 421:
      E quant grain ad truved de tuz maneres de bled
      When it [the ant] found grain of all manners of wheat

Related terms

Descendants

Scots grain definition

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English grayn, greyn, grein, from Old Norse grein (“branch, twig”), from Proto-Germanic *grainiz (“branch”).

Noun

grain (plural grains)

  1. (of a tree) A branch or bough.
  2. (of a plant) A stalk.
  3. (of a fork or trident) A prong.
  4. An offshoot, branch, or member of anything
  5. (of a cross) An arm.
  6. (of a family or surname) A branch.
  7. A branch of a stream; the arm of a loch.
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