different between engrail vs engrain

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?????e?l/

Etymology 1

en- +? grail. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

engrail (third-person singular simple present engrails, present participle engrailing, simple past and past participle engrailed)

1. (transitive) To make rough.
2. (intransitive) To form an edging or border; to run in curved or indented lines.
   • a. 1718, Thomas Parnell, Solomon

     Fine gold engrail'd adorns the figur'd floor

Etymology 2

French engrêler

Verb

engrail (third-person singular simple present engrails, present participle engrailing, simple past and past participle engrailed)

1. (transitive) To variegate or spot, as with hail.
2. (transitive, heraldry, archaic) To indent with small curves.
   • 1979, Cormac McCarthy, Suttree, Random House, p.120:

     He crossed through the high grass and went up the slope, climbing with handholds in the new turf until he gained the crest and turned to look down on the river and the city beyond, casting a gray glance along that varied world, the pieced plowland, the houses, the odd grady of the small metropolis against the green and blooming hills and the flat bow of the river like a serpentine trench poured with dull slag save where the wind engrailed its face and it shimmered lightly in the sun.

Anagrams

• Relangi, aligner, inlarge, learing, nargile, realign

English

Etymology

From the French phrase en grain. See grain (“cochineal dye”).

Verb

engrain (third-person singular simple present engrains, present participle engraining, simple past and past participle engrained)

1. Alternative spelling of ingrain

Anagrams

• Nearing, Reginan, aginner, aningre, earning, geranin, grannie, nearing, nigeran

French

Etymology

en- +? grain

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.????/

Noun

engrain m (plural engrains)

1. (botany) einkorn wheat

   Synonym: petit épeautre