grains

noun

Pigeons' dung used in tanning. See grainer.

1. The harvested seeds of various grass food crops eg: wheat, corn, barley.

   We stored a thousand tons of grain for the winter.

2. Similar seeds from any food crop, e.g., buckwheat, amaranth, quinoa.
3. A single seed of grass food crops.

   a grain of wheat

4. The crops from which grain is harvested.

   The fields were planted with grain.

5. A linear texture of a material or surface.

   Cut along the grain of the wood.

6. A single particle of a substance.

   a grain of salt

7. 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. A former unit of gold purity, also known as carat grain, equal to 1/4 "carat" (karat).
9. (materials) 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. (in the plural) The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.
13. A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
14. Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
15. (videography) Visual texture in processed photographic film due to the presence of small particles of a metallic silver, or dye clouds, developed from silver halide that have received enough photons.

1. To feed grain to.
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. (tanning) To remove the hair or fat from a skin.
6. (tanning) To soften leather.
7. To yield fruit.

1. A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant.
2. A tine, prong, or fork.
3. (founding) A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.