ingrain

• engrain

Inherited from Middle English engreynen, from the French phrase en grain; reinforced by the phrase (dyed) in grain. See grain.

• IPA^(key): /ɪŋˈɡɹeɪn/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -eɪn

ingrain (third-person singular simple present ingrains, present participle ingraining, simple past and past participle ingrained)

1. (transitive) To dye with a fast or lasting colour.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To make (something) deeply part of something else.

   Synonyms: breed in the bone, embed, infix, instill, radicate

   The dirt was deeply ingrained in the carpet.

   The lessons I learned at school were firmly ingrained in my mind.

ingrain (not comparable)

1. Dyed with grain, or kermes.
2. Dyed before manufacture; said of the material of a textile fabric.
3. (figurative, by extension) Thoroughly inwrought; forming an essential part of the substance.
   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 249:

     When were such changes ever made in men's natural relations to one another: when was such reconcilement of ingrain differences ever effected!

• ingrain wallpaper

ingrain (plural ingrains)

1. An ingrain fabric, such as a carpet.

• Ingrian, raining