grain (1 ‘grain’ is properly the red insect used in dyeing called ‘kermers’, ‘alkermes’, but also= ‘cochineal’)
1.
“in ,”
literally, dyed scarlet or crimson, fast dyed
MND. I. ii. 98
“your purple in-
beard”
; (hence) indelible, ineradicable, ingrained
Err. III. ii. 109
“[a fault] 'tis in ,”
Tw.N. I. v. 257
“'Tis in , sir; 'twill
endure wind and weather.”
2.
arrangement of veins
and fibres in wood; fig. “divert his
Tortive and errant”
Troil. I. iii. 8; phr.
(not pre-S.) “against the
grain”
Cor. II. iii.
241.
