grain

name

1. A village in Isle of Grain parish, Isle of Grain, Medway borough, Kent, England (OS grid ref TQ8876).
2. A surname.

noun

Etymology: 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”).

1. A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant; an offshoot.
2. A tine, prong, or fork.
3. A tine, prong, or fork.

   “Served 5 lb of fish per man which was caught by striking with grains”

4. A tine, prong, or fork.
5. A tine, prong, or fork.
6. A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.
7. A branch or arm of a stream, inlet, or sea.
8. A fork in a river valley or ravine.
9. The branch of a family; clan.
10. The groin; crotch.
11. The fangs of a tooth.

verb

Etymology: 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, granum, and grao.

1. To feed grain to.

   “He said that no man loved his horses, unless his own hands grained them. Every Christmas he gave them brimming measures.”

2. To make granular; to form into grains.
3. 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. To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
6. To soften leather.
7. To yield fruit.