The Collaborative International Dictionary
nonparallel \nonparallel\ adj.
not parallel; -- of lines or linear objects. Opposite of parallel. [Narrower terms: bias, catacorner, cata-cornered, catercorner, cater-cornered, catty-corner, catty-cornered, diagonal, kitty-corner, kitty-cornered, oblique, skew, skewed, slanted ; {crossed, decussate, intersectant, intersecting; cross-grained ; {diagonal; orthogonal, orthographic, rectangular, right-angled ; {right, perpendicular; angled ; {convergent] Also See: convergent, divergent, diverging.
(Computers) Not using parallel processing; -- of computers. [Narrower terms: serial] PJC]
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context of timber English) Having an irregular rather than a parallel grain. 2 (context by extension English) Difficult to deal with; contrary or troublesome.
WordNet
adj. difficult to deal with [syn: contrarious]
of timber; having fibers running irregularly rather than in parallel
Usage examples of "cross-grained".
He drew a distinction between cross-grained wood and long-grained, knocked on elm, pine, pear wood, oak, maple, beech, and soft linden wood, chatted about rare woods and the annual rings in trees.
The officer who relieved my cross-grained Castilian on the following day seemed of a different nature altogether.
I don't pretend to be any baa-lamb, and maybe I'm a little cross-grained at breakfast sometimes, but the way they go on jab-jab-jabbering, I simply can't stand it.
And all the while that this agonized questioning went on within him, he talked flippantly to Conrad, enraging the cross-grained doorkeeper to the point of homicidal mania.
The Green River is born from countless streams in the Uinta Range, a cross-grained spur of the Rockies, rubbing its spine against the sky near where Wyoming, Utah and Colorado come together on the map.
Oh, Sire, I regret sincerely, and you will regret as I do, those times when the King of France saw in his vestibules all those insolent gentlemen, lean, always swearing,- cross-grained mastiffs, who could bite mortally in days of battle.