Definitions for grain

• Definition
• Anagrams (72)

grain grain

Spelling: [greyn]

IPA: /greɪn/

Grain is a 5 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 6 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 8 points.

You can make 72 anagrams from letters in grain (aginr).

Definitions for grain

noun

1. a small, hard seed, especially the seed of a food plant such as wheat, corn, rye, oats, rice, or millet.
2. the gathered seed of food plants, especially of cereal plants.
3. such plants collectively.
4. any small, hard particle, as of sand, gold, pepper, or gunpowder.
5. the smallest unit of weight in most systems, originally determined by the weight of a plump grain of wheat. In the U.S. and British systems, as in avoirdupois, troy, and apothecaries' weights, the grain is identical. In an avoirdupois ounce there are 437.5 grains; in the troy and apothecaries' ounces there are 480 grains (one grain equals 0.0648 gram).
6. the smallest possible amount of anything:
7. the arrangement or direction of fibers in wood, or the pattern resulting from this.
8. the direction in which the fibers of a piece of dressed wood, as a board, rise to the surface:
9. the side of leather from which the hair has been removed.
10. a stamped pattern that imitates the natural grain of leather: used either on leather to simulate a different type of natural leather, or on coated cloth.
11. Textiles. the fibers or yarn in a piece of fabric as differentiated from the fabric itself. the direction of threads in a woven fabric in relation to the selvage.
12. the lamination or cleavage of stone, coal, etc.
13. Metallurgy. any of the individual crystalline particles forming a metal.
14. Jewelry. a unit of weight equal to 50 milligrams or ¼ carat, used for pearls and sometimes for diamonds.
15. the size of constituent particles of any substance; texture:
16. a granular texture or appearance:
17. a state of crystallization:
18. temper or natural character:
19. Rocketry. a unit of solid propellant.
20. Obsolete. color or hue.

Idioms

1. against the / one's grain, in opposition to one's temper, inclination, or character:
2. with a grain of salt. salt1 (def 24).

verb (used with object)

1. to form into grains; granulate.
2. to give a granular appearance to.
3. to paint in imitation of the grain of wood, stone, etc.:
4. to feed grain to (an animal).
5. Tanning. to remove the hair from (skins). to soften and raise the grain of (leather).

Origin of grain

1250-1300; Middle English grain, grein Old French grain Latin grānum seed, grain; see corn¹

Examples for grain

As a result the grain in the Egyptian markets had greatly increased in value.

“Mostly vodka and grain alcohol, because that got you really drunk, really fast,” he says.

Stalin, now one of the top men in the party, was sent there by Lenin to ensure that grain was getting shipped to Moscow.

He collected what he wanted grain by grain from bushels of chaff.

With this tool, Death is illustrated in many a 15th-century woodcut mowing down souls as if they were grain.

Against the grain By Michael Specter, The New Yorker Should you go gluten-free?

Decent ryes take anywhere from five to 10 years to age, and there's a shortage of grain producers.

She went with him to haul the grain to mill and was fascinated by the big scales.

When the grain is sufficiently grown it is elevated to the kilns.

The object may be as small as a grain of dust or as big as a warship; to the water it is all the same.