grain

English Online Dictionary. What means grain‎? What does grain mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹeɪn/
• Rhymes: -eɪn

Etymology 1

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

Noun

grain (countable and uncountable, plural grains)

2. (uncountable) The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.

4. (uncountable) Similar seeds from any food crop, e.g., buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
6. (countable) A single seed of grass food crops.

   a grain of wheat

   grains of oat

8. (countable, uncountable) The crops from which grain is harvested.

10. (uncountable) A linear texture of a material or surface.

12. (countable) A single particle of a substance.

    a grain of sand

    a grain of salt

14. (countable) Any of various small units of mass originally notionally based on grain's weight, variously standardized at different places and times, including
    2. The English grain of ¹⁄₅₇₆₀ troy pound or ¹⁄₇₀₀₀ pound avoirdupois, now exactly 64.79891 mg.

       Synonym: troy grain

    4. The metric, carat, or pearl grain of ¹⁄₄ carat used for measuring precious stones and pearls, now exactly 50 mg.
    6. (historical) The French grain of ¹⁄₉₂₁₆ livre, equivalent to 53.11 mg at metricization and equal to exactly 54.25 mg from 1812–1839 as part of the mesures usuelles.
16. (countable, chiefly historical) Any of various small units of length originally notionally based on a grain's width, variously standardized at different places and times.
18. (countable, historical) The carat grain of ¹⁄₄ carat as a measure of gold purity, creating a 96-point scale between 0% and 100% purity.
20. (materials) A region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
22. (astronautics) The solid piece of fuel in an individual solid-fuel rocket engine.
24. 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.
    • 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.

26. The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
28. (in the plural) The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum.

    Synonym: draff

30. (botany) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
31. Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
33. (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

See also

• cereal
• Appendix:Grains – translation tables for various grains

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 (“bough, branch”), from Proto-Germanic *grainiz (“branch, twig, ramification”), of unknown origin. Related to English grove (“thicket”).

Alternative forms

• grane (Scotland, Northern England)

Noun

grain (plural grains)

1. A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant; an offshoot.
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.
   4. An arm of a cross.
3. (founding) A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.
4. (dialectal) A branch or arm of a stream, inlet, or sea.
5. (dialectal) A fork in a river valley or ravine.
6. (dialectal) The branch of a family; clan.
7. (dialectal, anatomy) The groin; crotch.
8. (dialectal, anatomy) The fangs of a tooth.

Further reading

• “grain”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “grain”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• A ring, IgNAR, Ngari, Nigra, Ragin, Rigan, agrin, nigra, raign, raing

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡʁɛ̃/
• Rhymes: -ɛ̃

Etymology 1

Inherited 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. (figurative) a small amount, a bit

Derived terms

• grain de beauté
• gros-grain
• mettre son grain de sel
• ramener son grain de sel
• séparer le bon grain de l’ivraie

Related terms

• grenier

Etymology 2

Perhaps from etymology 1, referring to hailstones. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

grain m (plural grains)

2. (nautical) squall, thunderstorm

Derived terms

Further reading

• “grain”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• garni

Middle English

Verb

grain

1. Alternative form of greynen

Old French

Alternative forms

• grein

Etymology

From Latin grānum.

Noun

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

1. grain (edible part of a cereal plant)

Related terms

• grenier / guernier

Descendants

• Middle French: grain
  • French: grain
• → Middle English: greyn, grayn, grayne, grein, greyne, grone
  • English: grain
  • Scots: grain
  • Yola: gryne

Scots

Alternative forms

• grane, grayne, graine

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.