grain

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A small, dry, one-seeded fruit of a cereal grass, having the fruit and the seed walls united: a single grain of wheat; gleaned the grains from the ground one at a time. Also called caryopsis.
2. n. The fruits of cereal grasses especially after having been harvested, considered as a group: The grain was stored in a silo.
3. n. A cereal grass: Wheat is a grain grown in Kansas.
4. n. Cereal grasses considered as a group: Grain is grown along the river.
5. n. A relatively small discrete particulate or crystalline mass: a grain of sand.
6. n. A small amount or the smallest amount possible: hasn't a grain of sense.
7. n. Aerospace A mass of solid propellant.
8. n. A unit of weight in the U.S. Customary System, an avoirdupois unit equal to 0.002285 ounce (0.065 gram). See Table at measurement.
9. n. The arrangement, direction, or pattern of the fibrous tissue in wood.
10. n. The side of a hide or piece of leather from which the hair or fur has been removed.
11. n. The pattern or markings on this side of leather.
12. n. The pattern produced, as in stone, by the arrangement of particulate constituents.
13. n. The relative size of the particles composing a substance or pattern: a coarse grain.
14. n. A painted, stamped, or printed design that imitates the pattern found in wood, leather, or stone.
15. n. The direction or texture of fibers in a woven fabric.
16. n. A state of fine crystallization.
17. n. Basic temperament or nature; disposition.
18. n. An essential quality or characteristic.
19. n. Archaic Color; tint.
20. v. To cause to form into grains; granulate.
21. v. To paint, stamp, or print with a design imitating the grain of wood, leather, or stone.
22. v. To give a granular or rough texture to.
23. v. To remove the hair or fur from (hides) in preparation for tanning.
24. v. To form grains.
25. idiom. against the grain Contrary to custom, one's inclination, or good sense.
26. idiom. with a grain of salt With reservations; skeptically: Take that advice with a grain of salt.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A small hard, seed; specifically, a seed of one of the cereal plants, wheat, rye, oats, barley, maize, or millet; a corn.
2. n. Collectively, corn in general; the gathered seeds of cereal plants in mass; also, the plants themselves, whether standing or gathered: as, to grind or thresh grain; a field or a stack of grain.
3. n. The smallest unit of weight in most systems, originally determined by the weight of a plump grain of wheat. In a pound troy or apothecaries' weight there are 5,760 grains, the grain being the 24th part of a pennyweight in the former and the 20th part of a scruple in the latter. The ounce of each therefore contains 480 grains, while in avoirdupois weight, in which the grain is not used, the ounce is equal to 437½ grains and the pound to 7,000 grains. Abbreviated gr.
4. n. Any small hard particle, as of sand, gunpowder, sugar, salt, etc.; hence, a minute portion of anything; the smallest amount of anything: as, he has not a grain of wit.
5. n. In botany, a grain-like prominence or tubercle, as upon the sepals of dock.
6. n. plural The husks or remains of malt after brewing, or of any grain after distillation. It is used as feed for domestic animals: in the United States, for cows, which eat it greedily, but whose milk is made thinner and less nutritious by it, though temporarily increased in quantity, while the animal is soon materially injured.
7. n. The quality of a substance due to the size, character, or arrangement of its grains or particles, as its coarseness or fineness, or superficial roughness or smoothness; granular texture: as, a stone or salt of coarse grain; marble or sugar of fine grain.
8. n. Fibrous texture or constitution, especially of wood; the substance of wood as modified by the quality, arrangement, or direction of its fibers: as, boxwood has a very compact grain; wood of a gnarled grain; to plane wood with, against, or across the grain.
9. n. Hence Intimate structure or character; intrinsic or essential quality.
10. n. A spice: same as grains of paradise (which see, below).
11. n. One of the grain-like insects of the genus Coccus, as C. polonicus or C. ilicis, which yield a scarlet dye; later, especially, cochineal; the product of the Coccus cacti; kermes: so called from the granular appearance of the dried insects. See cut under cochineal. Hence — A red-colored dye; a red color of any kind pervading the texture: sometimes used as equivalent to Tyrian purple, Any fast color. See in grain, below.
12. n. The side of leather from which the hair has been removed, showing the fibrous texture.
13. n. In mining, cleat or cleavage.
14. n. plural A solution of birds' dung used in leather-manu facture to counteract the effects of lime and make the leather soft and flexible.
15. n. With the soarlet dye obtained from insects of the genus Coccus.
16. n. With any fast dye; in fast colors: as, to dye in grain.
17. n. See def. 9.
18. To bring forth grain; yield fruit.
19. To form grains or assume a granular form; crystallize into grains, as sugar.
20. To produce, as from a seed.
21. In brewing, to free from grain; separate the grain from, as wort.
22. To form into grains, as powder, sugar, and the like.
23. To paint, etc., so as to give the appearance of grain or fibers of wood.
24. In tanning, to take the hair off of; soften and raise the grain of: as, to grain skins or leather.
25. To dye in grain.
26. n. A tine, prong, or spike. See grain-staff, 1.
27. n. The fork of a tree or of a stick.
28. n. The groin.
29. n. A piece of sheet-metal used in a mold to hold in position an additional part, as a core. Also called chapelet and gagger.
30. n. plural An iron instrument with four or more barbed points, and a line attached to it, used at sea for striking and taking fish. In the United States these fish-spears are made in many patterns, with different numbers of prongs or barbs, sometimes only one prong and a half-barb. They oftenest have two prongs, each half-barbed inwardly. They are used for turtles as well as fish. Among seamen the plural is commonly used as a singular.
31. n. plural A place at which two streams unite; the fork of a river.
32. n. A dialectal (Scotch) form of groan.
33. n. 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.
34. n. The English name for the copper coin called grano at Malta.
35. To scrape, as with a slicker, on the grain side.

Wiktionary

1. n. uncountable The harvested seeds of various grass-related food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.
2. n. countable A single seed of grain.
3. n. countable, uncountable The crops from which grain is harvested.
4. n. uncountable A linear texture of a material or surface.
5. n. countable A single particle of a substance.
6. n. 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.
7. n. countable A former unit of gold purity, also known as carat grain, equal to 1⁄4 "carat" (karat).
8. n. A region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction.
9. n. An iron fish spear with a number of points half-barbed inwardly.
10. v. To feed grain to.
11. v. To make granular; to form into grains.
12. v. To texture a surface in imitation of the grain of a substance such as wood.
13. v. tanning To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
14. v. tanning To soften leather.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. obsolete See groan
2. n. A single small hard seed; a kernel, especially of those plants, like wheat, whose seeds are used for food.
3. n. The fruit of certain grasses which furnish the chief food of man, as corn, wheat, rye, oats, etc., or the plants themselves; -- used collectively.
4. n. Any small, hard particle, as of sand, sugar, salt, etc.; hence, any minute portion or particle
5. n. The unit of the English system of weights; -- so called because considered equal to the average of grains taken from the middle of the ears of wheat. 7,000 grains constitute the pound avoirdupois, and 5,760 grains the pound troy. A grain is equal to .0648 gram. See Gram.
6. n. 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.
7. n. The composite particles of any substance; that arrangement of the particles of any body which determines its comparative roughness or hardness; texture.
8. n. The direction, arrangement, or appearance of the fibers in wood, or of the strata in stone, slate, etc.
9. n. The fiber which forms the substance of wood or of any fibrous material.
10. n. The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
11. n. The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.
12. n. (Bot.) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock. See Grained, a., 4.
13. n. obsolete Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
14. n. obsolete A sort of spice, the grain of paradise.
15. v. To paint in imitation of the grain of wood, marble, etc.
16. v. To form (powder, sugar, etc.) into grains.
17. v. To take the hair off (skins); to soften and raise the grain of (leather, etc.).
18. v. obsolete To yield fruit.
19. v. To form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.
20. n. obsolete A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant.
21. n. A tine, prong, or fork.
22. n. One the branches of a valley or of a river.
23. n. An iron fish spear or harpoon, having four or more barbed points.
24. n. A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
25. n. (Founding) A thin piece of metal, used in a mold to steady a core.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. paint (a surface) to make it look like stone or wood
2. n. a relatively small granular particle of a substance
3. n. the smallest possible unit of anything
4. v. thoroughly work in
5. n. foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses
6. v. become granular
7. n. 1/7000 pound; equals a troy grain or 64.799 milligrams
8. n. the side of leather from which the hair has been removed
9. n. the physical composition of something (especially with respect to the size and shape of the small constituents of a substance)
10. n. the direction, texture, or pattern of fibers found in wood or leather or stone or in a woven fabric
11. v. form into grains
12. n. a cereal grass
13. n. dry seed-like fruit produced by the cereal grasses: e.g. wheat, barley, Indian corn
14. n. 1/60 dram; equals an avoirdupois grain or 64.799 milligrams
15. n. a weight unit used for pearls or diamonds: 50 mg or 1/4 carat