Have you ever looked closely at a piece of wood ? If you have , you might have noticed its beautiful grain . When talking about wood , grain describes the appearance of cell fibers in the wood . A wood's grain is important when choosing the right sort of wood for a project . Different kinds of wood have different grains , which affect their appearance , strength , and usefulness . Paying attention to a wood's grain helps you to know how to work with it . For example , if you are cutting a wood board with the grain , you would use a tool called a rip saw . If you are cutting across the grain , you would use a crosscut saw . Cutting against the grain is more difficult . If you work against the wood grain , you might tear out pieces of wood or even damage your tools . And that brings us to our expression : to go against the grain . If you go against the grain , you do something differently from what is normal or usual . An idea or action that goes against the grain is difficult to do or accept . Usually , it goes against a person's ideals , beliefs , or principles . If an idea or action goes against the grain , it is the opposite of what you believe is right or normal . You might find it difficult to accept . Let's say a friend of yours is offered a sales job . To do the job well , he must convince people to buy things they don't need . He is a very honest man . So , for him this job goes against the grain . To go against the grain can also mean to do things differently from others . Sometimes we want to go against the grain . We don't want to do things the way everyone else does . Artists often try to go against the grain and ignore the common , popular trends of the day . Now , let's hear the expression used between two friends . Did you hear about Jenny taking that corporate banking job ? I'm really happy for her . You must be kidding . Jenny is an artist . In college , we used to protest against big banks . I know we did . But life is different now . We're older and have bills to pay . And I think Jenny wants to send her little sister to college . But a corporate job ? It just goes against the grain for her . Look , we need to support our friend . Anything less would go against the grain for me .