AGAINST THE GRAIN

Definition: AGAINST THE GRAIN

AGAINST THE GRAIN

1. Against or across the direction of the fibers; hence, against one's wishes or tastes; unwillingly; unpleasantly; reluctantly; with difficulty. --Swift.--Saintsbury.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Slang in 1811

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Difficulty

Adverb: with difficulty, with much ado; barely, hardly; Adjective: uphill; against the stream, against the grain; d rebours; invita Minerva; in the teeth of; at a pinch, upon a pinch; at long odds, against long odds.

Verb: be difficult; Adjective: run one hard, go against the grain, try one's patience, put one out; put to one's shifts, put to one's wit's end; go hard with one, try one; pose, perplex; (uncertain); bother, nonplus, gravel, bring to a deadlock; be impossible; be in the way of; (hinder).

Dislike

Cause dislike, excite dislike; disincline, repel, sicken; make sick, render sick; turn one's stomach, nauseate, wamble, disgust, shock, stink in the nostrils; go against the grain, go against the stomach; stick in the throat; make one's blood run cold; (give pain); pall.

Opposition

Against the grain, against the current, against the stream, against the wind, against the tide; with a headwind; with the wind ahead, with the wind in one's teeth.

Pain

Sicken, disgust, revolt, nauseate, disenchant, repel, offend, shock, stink in the nostrils; go against the stomach, turn the stomach; make one sick, set the teeth on edge, go against the grain, grate on the ear; stick in one's throat, stick in one's gizzard; rankle, gnaw, corrode, horrify, appal, appall, freeze the blood; make the flesh creep, make the hair stand on end; make the blood curdle, make the blood run cold; make one shudder.

Roughness

Verb: be rough; Adjective: go against the grain.

Adverb: against the grain.

Unwillingness

Adverb: unwillingly; Adjective: grudgingly, with a heavy heart; with a bad, with an ill grace; against one's wishes, against one's will, against the grain, sore against one's wishes, sore against one's will, sore against one's grain; invita Minerva; a contre caeur; malgre soi; in spite of one's teeth, in spite of oneself; nolens volens; (necessity); perforce; under protest; no; not for the world, far be it from me.

Crosswords: AGAINST THE GRAIN

Go against the grain and we convert to the worst (Can't Nobody; performing artist: Nate Dogg)

Against the Grain (1918)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Against the Grain : Reflections of a Rebel Republican (reference)

• The Illicit Joyce of Postmodernism: Reading Against the Grain (reference)

  (more book examples)

Periodicals

• Against The Grain (reference)

  (more periodical examples)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expressions using "AGAINST THE GRAIN": ad against the grain ♦ go against the grain ♦ it goes against the grain for me ♦ it goes against the grain with me ♦ To go against the grain of. Additional references.

Albanian

bie ndesh me parimet. (various references)

Bulgarian 

срещу правилата, против установеното. (various references)

Czech

proti srsti. (various references)

Finnish

vastahakoisesti (against one's will, reluctantly). (various references)

French

pas de bon c�"ur, en travers de la fibre, � l'encontre de sa nature. (various references)

Greek 

κάθετα προς τα νερά, αντίθετα με τα νερά. (various references)

Hebrew 

ב� �'ו�" לטבעו. (various references)

Hungarian

nem szívesen (reluctantly). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

逆剃り (shaving against the grain). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

さかぞり (shaving against the grain). (various references)

Pig Latin

againstay ethay aingray

Romanian

în rãspãr (against the hair), în contra firii, împotriva caracterului. (various references)

Russian 

против шерсти (against the hair). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

van pameti (grain: against the grain), nerazumno (blindly, grain: against the grain, senseless). (various references)

Spanish

a contrapelo (the wrong way). (various references)

Swedish

mot luggen. (various references)

Turkish

tersine (athwart, backward, backwards, contrarily, contrariwise, conversely, crisscross, inversely, over, per contra, retro-), isteksizce (grudgingly, halfheartedly, reluctantly, unwillingly). (various references)

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-2 letters: straightening.

-3 letters: ingatherings.

-4 letters: antitarnish, ingathering, ingratiates, integrating, reattaining, reinstating, straighting, straitening.

-5 letters: astringent, astringing, estranging, garnishing, gatherings, herniating, hesitating, inearthing, ingratiate, intreating, intrigants, itinerants, resighting, resinating, sanitarian, sanitating, shattering, stagnating, straighten, tarnishing, tetanising, tightening, transiting.