Grain

From Old French grain, grein, from Latin grÄnum ("seed"), from Proto-Indo-European *ÇµrÌ¥hâ‚‚nÃ³m ("grain"). Compare English corn.

Full definition of grain

(countable and uncountable; plural grains)

(uncountable) The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.We stored a thousand tons of grain for the winter.
(uncountable) Similar seeds from any food crop, eg buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
(countable) A single seed of grain.a grain of wheat
(countable, uncountable) The crops from which grain is harvested.The fields were planted with grain.
(uncountable) A linear texture of a material or surface.Cut along the grain of the wood.
(countable) A single particle of a substance.a grain of sanda grain of salt
(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.
(countable) A former unit of gold purity, also known as carat grain, equal to "carat" (karat).
(materials) A region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
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.

Miltonall in a robe of darkest grain
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.

The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
(in the plural) The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.
(botany) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
Temper; natural disposition; inclination.

To feed grain to.
(transitive) To make granular; to form into grains.
(intransitive) To form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.
To texture a surface in imitation of the grain of a substance such as wood.
(tanning) To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
(tanning) To soften leather.
To yield fruit.

See groin ("part of the body").

(plural grains)

1770: Served 5 lb of fish per man which was caught by striking with grains — journal of Stephen Forwood (gunner on HM Bark Endeavour), 4 May 1770, quoted by Parkin (page 195).