Word.ws English Dictionary

went against the grain

went against the grain is the simple past 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 went against the grain

What is went against the grain the simple past of?
Went against the grain is the simple past of go against the grain.

Words near went against the grain in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: went 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: “went against the grain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/went_against_the_grain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.