Definition
Contrary to what is expected; especially, of behavior different from what society expects.
Unwillingly, reluctantly; contrary to one's nature.
In Context
- "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."