Word.ws English Dictionary

going against the grain

going against the grain is the present participle and gerund of go against the grain.

Meaning of go against the grain

Verb

go against the grain (third-person singular simple present goes against the grain, present participle going against the grain, simple past went against the grain, past participle gone against the grain)

  1. (idiomatic) To defy convention or norms; to do something in a manner that is unusual or out of the ordinary.
    • His method certainly goes against the grain, but it is unquestionably effective.
    Synonyms:
    run counter

Questions about going against the grain

What is going against the grain the present participle and gerund of?
Going against the grain is the present participle and gerund of go against the grain.

Words near going against the grain in the dictionary

  1. going about one's day
  2. going about to
  3. going abroad
  4. going after
  5. going against
  6. going against the grain
  7. going ahead
  8. going ahead with
  9. going all around the houses
  10. going all around the Wrekin
  11. going all out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: going against the grain (page history and authors); go against the grain (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “going against the grain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/going_against_the_grain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.