different between grain vs crumb

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English greyn, grayn, grein, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin gr?num (“seed”), from Proto-Indo-European *?r?h?nóm (“grain”). Compare English corn. Doublet of gram.

Noun

grain (countable and uncountable, plural grains)

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

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

4. (countable, uncountable) The crops from which grain is harvested.

5. (uncountable) A linear texture of a material or surface.

6. (countable) A single particle of a substance.

7. (countable) 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. (countable) 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.
    • a. 1825, Quoted by Coleridge, preface to Aids to Reflection:

      […] doing as the dyers do, who, having first dipped their silks in colours of less value, then give them the last tincture of crimson in grain.

11. The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

12. (in the plural) The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.
13. (botany) A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock.
14. Temper; natural disposition; inclination.
    • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI

      brothers […] not united in grain

15. (photography, 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.

Derived terms

• against the grain
• grain of salt
• grainy

Related terms

Translations

See also

• cereal
• Appendix:Grains – translation tables for various grains

Verb

grain (third-person singular simple present grains, present participle graining, simple past and past participle grained)

1. To feed grain to.
2. (transitive) To make granular; to form into grains.
3. (intransitive) 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.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English grayn, from Old Norse grein.

Noun

grain (plural grains)

1. A branch of a tree; a stalk or stem of a plant.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of G. Douglas to this entry?)

2. A tine, prong, or fork.
   1. One of the branches of a valley or river.
   2. An iron fish spear or harpoon, with a number of points half-barbed inwardly.
      • 4 May 1770, Stephen Forwood (gunner on H.M. Bark Endeavour), journal (quoted by Parkin (page 195)

        Served 5 lb of fish per man which was caught by striking with grains

   3. A blade of a sword, knife, etc.
3. (founding) A thin piece of metal, used in a mould to steady a core.

Further reading

• grain in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• grain in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• A ring, Ngari, Nigra, Ragin, Rigan, agrin, nigra, raign, raing

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????/
• Rhymes: -??

Etymology 1

From Middle French, from Old French grain, grein, from Latin gr?num, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *?r?h?nóm.

Noun

grain m (plural grains)

1. grain
2. (figuratively) a small amount, a bit

Derived terms

• avoir un grain
• grain de beauté
• gros-grain
• mettre son grain de sel
• ramener son grain de sel
• séparer le bon grain de l'ivraie
• veiller au grain

Related terms

• grenier

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

grain m (plural grains)

1. (nautical) squall, thunderstorm

Derived terms

Anagrams

• garni

Further reading

• “grain” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Middle English

Verb

grain

1. Alternative form of greynen

Old French

Alternative forms

• grein

Etymology

From Latin gr?num.

Noun

grain m (oblique plural grainz, nominative singular grainz, nominative plural grain)

1. grain (edible part of a cereal plant)

Related terms

• grenier / guernier

Descendants

• Middle French: grain
  • French: grain
• ? Middle English: greyn, grayn, greyne, grayne, grein, grone
  • English: grain
  • Scots: grain
  • Yola: gryne

English

Alternative forms

• crimb (dialectal)

Etymology

From Middle English crome, cromme, crumme, crume, from Old English cruma (“crumb, fragment”), from Proto-Germanic *krumô, *kr?mô (“fragment, crumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *gr?-mo- (“something scraped together, lumber, junk; to claw, scratch”), from *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist, wind”). The b is excrescent, as in limb and climb, appearing in the mid 15th century to match crumble and words like dumb, numb, thumb. Cognate with Dutch kruim (“crumb”), Low German Krome, Krume (“crumb”), German Krume (“crumb”), Danish krumme (“crumb”), Swedish dialectal krumma (“crumb”), Swedish inkråm (“crumbs, giblets”), Icelandic krumur (“crumb”), Latin gr?mus (“a little heap”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??m/
• Rhymes: -?m

Noun

crumb (countable and uncountable, plural crumbs)

1. A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).

   • desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table

   • At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.

2. A small piece of other material, such as rubber.
   • 2012, Caroline Joy Adams, An Italic Calligraphy Handbook (page 79)

     Then erase any pencil lines with a good, soft eraser, rubbing gently, in only one direction. A dustbrush can be useful in removing any eraser crumbs.

3. (figuratively) A bit, small amount.

4. The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust.
   • 1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford

     Dust unto dust, what must be, must; / If you can't get crumb, you'd best eat crust.

5. A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate.
6. (slang) A nobody; a worthless person.
   • 1999, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Alice on the Outside (page 146)

     All Dad can think of is a gift certificate from the Melody Inn? And my crumb of a boyfriend doesn't even show up? This is a birthday?

7. (slang) A body louse (Pediculus humanus).

Synonyms

• (crumbled food): crumbling
• (small amount): see also Thesaurus:modicum.

Derived terms

Related terms

• crumble
• crumpet
• crumbum

Translations

Verb

crumb (third-person singular simple present crumbs, present participle crumbing, simple past and past participle crumbed)

1. (transitive) To cover with crumbs.
2. (transitive) To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers; to crumble.

   to crumb bread

Derived terms

• crumbed

Related terms

• crumple

Translations