DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan
Tin n.
1. Chem. An elementary substance found as an oxide in the mineral cassiterite, and reduced as a soft silvery-white crystalline metal, with a tinge of yellowish-blue, and a high luster. It is malleable at ordinary temperatures, but brittle when heated. It is softer than gold and can be beaten out into very thin strips called tinfoil. It is ductile at 2120, when it can be drawn out into wire which is not very tenacious; it melts at 4420, and at a higher temperature burns with a brilliant white light. Air and moisture act on tin very slightly. The peculiar properties of tin, especially its malleability, its brilliancy and the slowness with which it rusts make it very serviceable. With other metals it forms valuable alloys, as bronze, gun metal, bell metal, pewter and solder. It is not easily oxidized in the air, and is used chiefly to coat iron to protect it from rusting, in the form of tin foil with mercury to form the reflective surface of mirrors, and in solder, bronze, speculum metal, and other alloys. Its compounds are designated as stannous, or stannic. Symbol Sn (Stannum). Atomic weight 117.4.
2. Thin plates of iron covered with tin; tin plate.
3. Money. [Cant]
Block tin Metal., commercial tin, cast into blocks, and partially refined, but containing small quantities of various impurities, as copper, lead, iron, arsenic, etc.; solid tin as distinguished from tin plate; -- called also bar tin.
Butter of tin. Old Chem. See Fuming liquor of Libavius, under Fuming.
Grain tin. Metal. See under Grain.
Salt of tin Dyeing, stannous chloride, especially so called when used as a mordant.
Stream tin. See under Stream.
Tin cry Chem., the peculiar creaking noise made when a bar of tin is bent. It is produced by the grating of the crystal granules on each other.
Tin foil, tin reduced to a thin leaf.
Tin frame Mining, a kind of buddle used in washing tin ore.
Tin liquor, Tin mordant Dyeing, stannous chloride, used as a mordant in dyeing and calico printing.
Tin penny, a customary duty in England, formerly paid to tithingmen for liberty to dig in tin mines. [Obs.] --Bailey.
Tin plate, thin sheet iron coated with tin.
Tin pyrites. See Stannite.
Grain n.
1. A single small hard seed; a kernel, especially of those plants, like wheat, whose seeds are used for food.
2. The fruit of certain grasses which furnish the chief food of man, as corn, wheat, rye, oats, etc., or the plants themselves; -- used collectively.
Storehouses crammed with grain. --Shak.
3. Any small, hard particle, as of sand, sugar, salt, etc.; hence, any minute portion or particle; as, a grain of gunpowder, of pollen, of starch, of sense, of wit, etc.
I . . . with a grain of manhood well resolved. --Milton.
4. The unit of the English system of weights; -- so called because considered equal to the average of grains taken from the middle of the ears of wheat. 7,000 grains constitute the pound avoirdupois, and 5,760 grains the pound troy. A grain is equal to .0648 gram. See Gram.
5. A reddish dye made from the coccus insect, or kermes; hence, a red color of any tint or hue, as crimson, scarlet, etc.; sometimes used by the poets as equivalent to Tyrian purple.
All in a robe of darkest grain. --Milton.
Doing as the dyers do, who, having first dipped their silks in colors of less value, then give' them the last tincture of crimson in grain. --Quoted by Coleridge, preface to Aids to Reflection.
6. The composite particles of any substance; that arrangement of the particles of any body which determines its comparative roughness or hardness; texture; as, marble, sugar, sandstone, etc., of fine grain.
Hard box, and linden of a softer grain. --Dryden.
7. The direction, arrangement, or appearance of the fibers in wood, or of the strata in stone, slate, etc.
Knots, by the conflux of meeting sap,
Infect the sound pine and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth. --Shak.
8. The fiber which forms the substance of wood or of any fibrous material.
9. The hair side of a piece of leather, or the marking on that side.
10. pl. The remains of grain, etc., after brewing or distillation; hence, any residuum. Also called draff.
11. Bot. A rounded prominence on the back of a sepal, as in the common dock. See Grained, a., 4.
12. Temper; natural disposition; inclination. [Obs.]
Brothers . . . not united in grain. --Hayward.
13. A sort of spice, the grain of paradise. [Obs.]
He cheweth grain and licorice,
To smellen sweet. --Chaucer.
Against the grain, against or across the direction of the fibers; hence, against one's wishes or tastes; unwillingly; unpleasantly; reluctantly; with difficulty. --Swift. --Saintsbury.-- A grain of allowance, a slight indulgence or latitude a small allowance.
Grain binder, an attachment to a harvester for binding the grain into sheaves.
Grain colors, dyes made from the coccus or kermes insect.
Grain leather. (a) Dressed horse hides. (b) Goat, seal, and other skins blacked on the grain side for women's shoes, etc.
Grain moth Zool., one of several small moths, of the family Tineidæ (as Tinea granella and Butalis cerealella), whose larvæ devour grain in storehouses.
Grain side Leather, the side of a skin or hide from which the hair has been removed; -- opposed to flesh side.
Grains of paradise, the seeds of a species of amomum.
grain tin, crystalline tin ore metallic tin smelted with charcoal.
Grain weevil Zool., a small red weevil (Sitophilus granarius), which destroys stored wheat and other grain, by eating out the interior.
Grain worm Zool., the larva of the grain moth. See grain moth, above.
In grain, of a fast color; deeply seated; fixed; innate; genuine. “Anguish in grain.” --Herbert.
To dye in grain, to dye of a fast color by means of the coccus or kermes grain [see Grain, n., 5]; hence, to dye firmly; also, to dye in the wool, or in the raw material. See under Dye.
The red roses flush up in her cheeks . . .
Likce crimson dyed in grain. --Spenser.
-- To go against the grain of (a person), to be repugnant to; to vex, irritate, mortify, or trouble.