against the grain

• IPA^(key): /əˈɡɛnst ðə ɡɹeɪn/

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against the grain

1. (woodworking, of sanding or planing a piece of wood) Preventing a smooth, level surface from being formed by raising the nap of the wood or causing larger splinters to form ahead of the cutting tool below the cutting surface.
2. (idiomatic) Contrary to what is expected; especially, of behavior different from what society expects.

   By going against the grain and going to work nude, you've made yourself a laughing stock.

   • 2015 August 1, Ed Vulliamy, quoting Robert Gordon, “‘Don’t call me a crypto-Nazi!’ The lost heart of political debate”, in The Guardian‎:

     Get the thinkers out into the open like Vidal and Buckley, a really radical idea, against the grain.

   • 2022 March 5, Richard Partington, “Russia’s central bank head ‘is mourning for her economy’”, in The Guardian‎:

     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.

3. (idiomatic) Unwillingly, reluctantly; contrary to one's nature.

   It went much against the grain with him

   • c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     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.

4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see against,‎ the,‎ grain.
   • 1879, R. C. Kedzie, “The Adulteration and Deterioration of Food”, in Annual Report of the National Board of Health, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 138:

     In all ordinary processes of grinding, the friction of the rapidly revolving millstones against the grain, or even of the stones against each other, develops a large amount of heat, so that the crushed wheat comes from the stones quite hot

   • 1983, US Congress, Grain Elevator Bankruptcy, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 134:

     There simply was not enough grain in each elevator to satisfy the known claims against the grain.

• The expression allows possessive pronouns and certain determiners to replace the and grain to be plural.

• Plane (tool) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• go against the grain
• turn the tide