INGRAIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ingrain mean? 

• INGRAIN (verb)
  The verb INGRAIN has 2 senses:

1. thoroughly work in

2. produce or try to produce a vivid impression of

  Familiarity information: INGRAIN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INGRAIN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ingrain    ... he / she / it ingrains   
Past simple: ingrained   
Past participle: ingrained   
-ing form: ingraining   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Thoroughly work in

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

grain; ingrain

Context example:

His hands were grained with dirt

Hypernyms (to "ingrain" is one way to...):

penetrate; perforate (pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Produce or try to produce a vivid impression of

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

impress; ingrain; instill

Context example:

Mother tried to ingrain respect for our elders in us

Hypernyms (to "ingrain" is one way to...):

affect; impress; move; strike (have an emotional or cognitive impact upon)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something PP

 Context examples 

One of these, the parlor, gay with an ingrain carpet and dolorous with a funeral card and a death-picture of one of her numerous departed babes, was kept strictly for company.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He held up his hand, rubbing the ball of the thumb over the calloused palm and gazing at the dirt that was ingrained in the flesh itself and which no brush could scrub away.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

She was repelled by those lacerated hands, grimed by toil so that the very dirt of life was ingrained in the flesh itself, by that red chafe of the collar and those bulging muscles.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)