against the grain
/əˈɡɛnst ðə ɡɹeɪn/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.17 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
15
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
prep_phrase
Preventing a smooth, level surface from being formed by raising the nap of the wood or causing larger splinters to form ahead of the cutting tool below the cutting surface.
prep_phrase
Contrary to what is expected; especially, of behavior different from what society expects.
prep_phrase
prep_phrase
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see against, the, grain.
Example Sentences
- "By going against the grain and going to work nude, you've made yourself a laughing stock."
- "Get the thinkers out into the open like Vidal and Buckley, a really radical idea, against the grain."
- "For Nabiullina, the developments unpick almost a decade of work going against the grain of Putin’s increasing global isolation by opening up the economy."
- "It went much against the grain with him."
- "Say, you chose him / More after our commandment than as guided / By your own true affections, and that your minds, / Preoccupied with what you rather must do / Than what you should, made you against the grain / To voice him consul: lay the fault on us."
- "Indeed, when I interviewed Ken Skates, the Welsh Cabinet Member for Transport and North Wales, for my Calling All Stations podcast, he suggested (rightly) that the electrification of 170km (106 miles) of Valleys line ^([sic]) "was no mean feat in less than ten years". Given the stalled electrification of England's railways, notably the Midland Main Line, he has a point. This project went completely against the grain of Treasury thinking, which Skates reckons has been a crucial barrier to preventing investment in less populated areas."