What is "grain"

Grain \Grain\, v. i. [F. grainer, grener. See Grain, n.]

1. To yield fruit. [Obs.]
   --Gower.

2. To form grains, or to assume a granular form, as the result of crystallization; to granulate.

Grain \Grain\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Grained (gr[=a]nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Graining.]

1. To paint in imitation of the grain of wood, marble, etc.

2. To form (powder, sugar, etc.) into grains.

3. To take the hair off (skins); to soften and raise the grain of (leather, etc.).

Grain \Grain\ (gr[=a]n), n. [F. grain, L. granum, grain, seed, small kernel, small particle. See Corn, and cf. Garner, n., Garnet, Gram the chick-pea, Granule, Kernel.]

1. A single small hard seed; a kernel, especially of those plants, like wheat, whose seeds are used for food.

2. The fruit of certain grasses which furnish the chief food of man, as corn, wheat, rye, oats, etc., or the plants themselves; -- used collectively.

   Storehouses crammed with grain.
   --Shak.

3. Any small, hard particle, as of sand, sugar, salt, etc.; hence, any minute portion or particle; as, a grain of gunpowder, of pollen, of starch, of sense, of wit, etc.

   I . . . with a grain of manhood well resolved.
   --Milton.

4. 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.

5. 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.

   All in a robe of darkest grain.
   --Milton.

   Doing as the dyers do, who, having first dipped their silks in colors of less value, then give' them the last tincture of crimson in grain.
   --Quoted by Coleridge, preface to Aids to Reflection.

6. The composite particles of any substance; that arrangement of the particles of any body which determines its comparative roughness or hardness; texture; as, marble, sugar, sandstone, etc., of fine grain.

   Hard box, and linden of a softer grain.
   --Dryden.

7. The direction, arrangement, or appearance of the fibers in wood, or of the strata in stone, slate, etc.

   Knots, by the conflux of meeting sap, Infect the sound pine and divert his grain Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
   --Shak.

8. The fiber which forms the substance of wood or of any fibrous material.

9. The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
   --Knight.

10. pl. The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.

11. (Bot.) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock. See Grained, a., 4.

12. Temper; natural disposition; inclination. [Obs.]

    Brothers . . . not united in grain.
    --Hayward.

13. A sort of spice, the grain of paradise. [Obs.] He cheweth grain and licorice, To smellen sweet. --Chaucer. Against the grain, against or across the direction of the fibers; hence, against one's wishes or tastes; unwillingly; unpleasantly; reluctantly; with difficulty. --Swift. --Saintsbury. A grain of allowance, a slight indulgence or latitude a small allowance. Grain binder, an attachment to a harvester for binding the grain into sheaves. Grain colors, dyes made from the coccus or kermes insect. Grain leather.

    1. Dressed horse hides.

    2. Goat, seal, and other skins blacked on the grain side for women's shoes, etc.

       Grain moth (Zo["o]l.), one of several small moths, of the family Tineid[ae] (as Tinea granella and Butalis cerealella), whose larv[ae] devour grain in storehouses.

       Grain side (Leather), the side of a skin or hide from which the hair has been removed; -- opposed to flesh side.

       Grains of paradise, the seeds of a species of amomum.

       grain tin, crystalline tin ore metallic tin smelted with charcoal.

       Grain weevil (Zo["o]l.), a small red weevil ( Sitophilus granarius), which destroys stored wheat and other grain, by eating out the interior.

       Grain worm (Zo["o]l.), the larva of the grain moth. See grain moth, above.

       In grain, of a fast color; deeply seated; fixed; innate; genuine. ``Anguish in grain.''
       --Herbert.

       To dye in grain, to dye of a fast color by means of the coccus or kermes grain [see Grain, n., 5]; hence, to dye firmly; also, to dye in the wool, or in the raw material. See under Dye.

       The red roses flush up in her cheeks . . . Likce crimson dyed in grain.
       --Spenser.

       To go against the grain of (a person), to be repugnant to; to vex, irritate, mortify, or trouble.

Grain \Grain\, v. & n. See Groan. [Obs.]

Grain \Grain\ (gr[=a]n), n. [See Groin a part of the body.]

1. A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant. [Obs.]
   --G. Douglas.

2. A tine, prong, or fork. Specifically:

   1. One the branches of a valley or of a river.

   2. pl. An iron fish spear or harpoon, having four or more barbed points.

3. A blade of a sword, knife, etc.

4. (Founding) A thin piece of metal, used in a mold to steady a core.

early 13c., "scarlet dye made from insects" (late 12c. in surnames), from Old French grain (12c.) "seed, grain, particle, berry, scarlet dye" (see kermes for last sense), from Latin granum "seed, a grain, small kernel" (see corn (n.1)).\n

\nAs a collective singular meaning "seed of wheat and allied grasses used as food," it is attested from early 14c. Extended from c.1300 to other objects (such as salt, sand). As a unit of weight, from 1540s. Used of wood (1560s), from the arrangement of fibers, which resemble seeds. Hence, against the grain (1650), a metaphor from carpentry: cutting across the fibers of the wood is more difficult than cutting along them.

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context uncountable English) The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley. 2 (context uncountable English) Similar seeds from any food crop, eg buckwheat, amaranth, quino

1. 3 (context countable English) A single seed of grain. 4 (context countable uncountable English) The crops from which grain is harvested. 5 (context uncountable English) A linear texture of a material or surface. 6 (context countable English) A single particle of a substance. 7 (context countable English) 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. 8 (context countable English) A former unit of gold purity, also known as ''carat '''grain''''', equal to (frac: 4) "carat" (karat). 9 (context materials English) A region within a material having a single crystal structure or direction. 10 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. 11 The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side. 12 (context in the plural English) The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff. 13 (context botany English) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock. 14 Temper; natural disposition; inclination. v

2. 1 To feed grain to. 2 (context transitive English) To make granular; to form into grains. 3 (context intransitive English) 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 (context tanning English) To remove the hair or fat from a skin. 6 (context tanning English) To soften leather. 7 To yield fruit. Etymology 2

   n. 1 A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant. 2 A tine, prong, or fork. 3 # One of the branches of a valley or river. 4 # An iron fish spear or harpoon, with a number of points half-barbed inwardly. 5 # A blade of a sword, knife, et

3. 6 (context founding English) A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.

1. v. thoroughly work in; "His hands were grained with dirt" [syn: ingrain]

2. paint (a surface) to make it look like stone or wood

3. form into grains [syn: granulate]

4. become granular [syn: granulate]

1. n. a small hard particle; "a grain of sand"

2. foodstuff prepared from the starchy grains of cereal grasses [syn: food grain, cereal]

3. used for pearls or diamonds: 50 mg or 1/4 carat [syn: metric grain]

4. 1/60 dram; equals an avoirdupois grain or 64.799 milligrams

5. 1/7000 pound; equals a troy grain or 64.799 milligrams

6. dry seedlike fruit produced by the cereal grasses: e.g. wheat, barley, Indian corn [syn: caryopsis]

7. the direction or texture of fibers found in wood or leather or stone or in a woven fabric; "saw the board across the grain"

Grains are coarse particles such as sand particles, salt particles or seeds:

• Food grains, the small, hard, fruits or seeds of arable crops or the crops bearing these fruits or seeds. Includes the:
  • cereal grains (caryopsis of grass plants)
    • Whole grains, the cereal grains that contain bran and germ as well as the endosperm
  • pseudocereals: starchy grains produced by broadleaf plants; used like true cereals
  • pulses or grain legumes
  • oilseeds
• Film grain, the gritty texture sometimes apparent on images produced using photographic film or paper (grainy)
• " Fine-grained", designating a more finely differentiated form of a technical or abstract system, in contrast to "coarse-grained", a less differentiated one
• Grain (unit), a unit of mass equal to 64.79891 milligrams, of an avoirdupois pound
• Grain size (or particle size), for particles of rock in geology
• Crystallite or "grain" in metallurgy, a single crystal inside solid-state matter
• Grain, a solid propellant charge, roughly a hollow cylinder, sometimes textured, and possibly very large
• Granular synthesis, a method for digital musical instruments operating on the "microsound" time scale
• Grain (surfboard company), a company that manufactures hollow wooden surfboards
• Wood grain, the alignment and texture of the fibres in wood

Or, more generally:

• Grain (cipher), a stream cipher designed for restricted hardware environments and submitted to eSTREAM in 2004 by Martin Hell et al.
• Grain (textile), the orientation of a woven textile used in a garment.
• Isle of Grain in Kent, England, on which lies the village of Grain
• GRAIN, an international non-governmental organization for sustainable agriculture

Grain may also refer to:

• Grain (magazine), a Canadian literary magazine
• Grain (film), 2015 film
• Border clans in Scotland
• Grains per gallon, a unit of water hardness

Grain Surfboards is an American company that manufactures custom and originally designed hollow wooden surfboards. The surfboards are made primarily from Northern White Cedar, with some Western Red Cedar added for color accent.

Grain is a Canadian literary magazine featuring poetry, short fiction, non-fiction, and artwork. It is published quarterly by the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild and is based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Grain is an upcoming Turkish/German/French/Swede film written and directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu.

A grain is a unit of measurement of mass equal to milligrams. It is nominally based upon the mass of a single seed of a cereal. From the Bronze Age into the Renaissance the average masses of wheat and barley grains were part of the legal definition of units of mass. However, there is no evidence of any country ever having used actual seeds or cereal grains. Rather, expressions such as "thirty-two grains of wheat, taken from the middle of the ear" appear to have been ritualistic formulas, essentially the premodern equivalent of legal boilerplate.

The grain was the legal foundation of traditional English weight systems, and is the only unit that is equal throughout the troy, avoirdupois, and apothecaries' systems of mass. The unit was based on the weight of a single grain of barley, considered equivalent to grains of wheat. The fundamental unit of the pre-1527 English weight system known as Tower weights, was a different sort of grain known as the "wheat grain". The Tower wheat grain was defined as exactly of a troy grain.

Since the implementation of the international yard and pound agreement of 1 July 1959, the grain or troy grain (Symbol: gr) measure has been defined in terms of units of mass in the International System of Units as precisely . is approximately . The unit formerly used by jewellers to measure pearls, diamonds, or other precious stones, called the jeweller's grain or pearl grain, is equal to of a carat, or (~ ). The grain was also the name of a traditional French unit equal to .

In both British Imperial and U.S. customary units, there are precisely 7,000 grains per avoirdupois pound, and 5,760 grains per troy pound or apothecaries pound.

Grains are small, hard, dry seeds, with or without attached hulls or fruit layers, harvested for human or animal consumption. Agronomists also call the plants producing such seeds "grain crops". The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals such as wheat and rye, and legumes such as beans and soybeans. Ubiquity of grain as a food source encouraged use of the term to describe other particles with volume or mass similar to an individual seed.

After being harvested, dry grains are more durable than other staple foods, such as starchy fruits ( plantains, breadfruit, etc.) and tubers ( sweet potatoes, cassava, and more). This durability has made grains well suited to industrial agriculture, since they can be mechanically harvested, transported by rail or ship, stored for long periods in silos, and milled for flour or pressed for oil. Thus, major global commodity markets exist for canola, maize, rice, soybeans, wheat, and other grains but not for tubers, vegetables, or other crops.

Grain is a stream cipher submitted to eSTREAM in 2004 by Martin Hell, Thomas Johansson and Willi Meier. It has been selected for the final eSTREAM portfolio for Profile 2 by the eSTREAM project. Grain is designed primarily for restricted hardware environments. It accepts an 80- bit key and a 64-bit IV. The specifications do not recommended a maximum length of output per (key, iv) pair. A number of potential weaknesses in the cipher have been identified and corrected in Grain 128a which is now the recommended cipher to use for hardware environments providing both 128bit security and authentication.

For woven textiles, grain refers to the orientation of the weft and warp threads. The three named grains are straight grain, cross grain, and the bias grain. In sewing, a pattern piece can be cut from fabric in any orientation, and the chosen grain or orientation will affect the way the fabric hangs and stretches and thus the fit of a garment. Generally speaking a piece is said to be cut on a particular grain when the longest part of the pattern or the main seams of the finished piece are aligned with that grain. Non-woven materials such as felt, interfacing or leather do not have a grain.