Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small, dry, one-seeded fruit of a cereal grass, having the fruit and the seed walls united.
- noun The fruits of cereal grasses especially after having been harvested, considered as a group.
- noun A cereal grass.
- noun Cereal grasses considered as a group.
- noun A relatively small discrete particulate or crystalline mass.
- noun A small amount or the smallest amount possible.
- noun Aerospace A mass of solid propellant.
- noun A unit of weight in the US Customary System, an avoirdupois unit equal to 0.002285 ounce (0.065 gram).
- noun The arrangement, direction, or pattern of the fibrous tissue in wood.
- noun The side of a hide or piece of leather from which the hair or fur has been removed.
- noun The pattern or markings on this side of leather.
- noun The pattern produced, as in stone, by the arrangement of particulate constituents.
- noun The relative size of the particles composing a substance or pattern.
- noun A painted, stamped, or printed design that imitates the pattern found in wood, leather, or stone.
- noun The direction or texture of fibers in a woven fabric.
- noun A state of fine crystallization.
- noun Basic temperament or nature; disposition.
- noun An essential quality or characteristic.
- noun Archaic Color; tint.
- intransitive verb To cause to form into grains; granulate.
- intransitive verb To paint, stamp, or print with a design imitating the grain of wood, leather, or stone.
- intransitive verb To give a granular or rough texture to.
- intransitive verb To remove the hair or fur from (hides) in preparation for tanning.
- intransitive verb To form grains.
- idiom (against the grain) Contrary to custom, one's inclination, or good sense.
- idiom (with a grain of salt) With reservations; skeptically.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To bring forth grain; yield fruit.
- To form grains or assume a granular form; crystallize into grains, as sugar.
- To produce, as from a seed.
- In brewing, to free from grain; separate the grain from, as wort.
- To form into grains, as powder, sugar, and the like.
- To paint, etc., so as to give the appearance of grain or fibers of wood.
- In tanning, to take the hair off of; soften and raise the grain of: as, to
grain skins or leather. - To dye in grain.
- noun A dialectal (Scotch) form of
groan . - To scrape, as with a slicker, on the grain side.
- noun In the tobacco industry, a deposit of calcium oxalate, in scattered globules, often at the base of the hairs, formed upon tobacco-leaves in the process of curing and sweating.
- noun The English name for the copper coin called
grano at Malta. - noun A tine, prong, or spike. See
grain-staff , 1. - noun The fork of a tree or of a stick.
- noun The groin.
- noun A piece of sheet-metal used in a mold to hold in position an additional part, as a core. Also called
chapelet and gagger. - noun plural An iron instrument with four or more barbed points, and a line attached to it, used at sea for striking and taking fish.
- noun plural A place at which two streams unite; the fork of a river.
- noun A small hard, seed; specifically, a seed of one of the cereal plants, wheat, rye, oats, barley, maize, or millet; a corn.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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We are not happy with whole grain machine-made bread, and I have never known anyone happy with *whole grain* machine-made bread, no matter what King Arthur Flour may say.
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They severally represented a function, a moment in the life of man or of the universe; thus Naprît was identified with the ripe ear, or the grain of wheat; [**] ** The word _naprît_ means _grain_, the grain of wheat.
History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12) M. L. McClure 1881
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Livelier than ... the _grain_ Of Sarra, "etc. And as these were fast or durable colours we have such phrases as 'to dye in grain,'
Milton's Comus John Milton 1641
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The amount of revenue collected in grain is omitted, as being of less interest: –
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UPDATE: Recall that when cooking, oftentimes cutting against the grain is the right thing to do.
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You have got all out of my old head long ago; and when the grain is all ground what can the miller do?
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Half a century ago, revolutionary advances in grain breeding tripled production in developing countries and played a major role in saving the lives of an estimated one billion people in Mexico, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Jose W. Fernandez: Addressing Global Food Production Jose W. Fernandez 2010
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Half a century ago, revolutionary advances in grain breeding tripled production in developing countries and played a major role in saving the lives of an estimated one billion people in Mexico, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Jose W. Fernandez: Addressing Global Food Production Jose W. Fernandez 2010
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If that grain is at least 51% corn, and is distilled in either Tennessee or Kentucky, then it can be called “Bourbon.”
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Half a century ago, revolutionary advances in grain breeding tripled production in developing countries and played a major role in saving the lives of an estimated one billion people in Mexico, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.
Jose W. Fernandez: Addressing Global Food Production Jose W. Fernandez 2010
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