Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To ingrain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See ingrain, ingrainer.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To dye in grain, or of a fast color. See ingrain.
  • transitive verb To incorporate with the grain or texture of anything; to infuse deeply. See Ingrain.
  • transitive verb To color in imitation of the grain of wood; to grain. See Grain, v. t., 1.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Alternative spelling of ingrain.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English engreinen, to dye with cochineal or kermes, from Old French engrainer : en-, causative pref.; see en– + graine, grain; see grain.]

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Examples

  • A national campaign to engrain the three Cs -- cyberethics, cybersafety and cybersecurity -- into the subconscious of K-12 students is being readied by the National Cyber Security Alliance.

    Teaching kids to stay cyber-safe 2009

  • Writers took all year to fully engrain those characters into the show and develop the way the dynamic has changed, but now the show is really able to dig into the good stuff.

    Hulu.com: The Top 10 TV Comedies of 2011 Hulu.com 2011

  • The dem solution is to put stronghanded regulations on the financial community and engrain the government in the minutia of the system so that in times of potential trouble, they can swoop in like faux-superman and 'save the world '– or when they need political points.

    Obama touts financial reform, says GOP stance 'deceptive' 2010

  • A national campaign to engrain the three Cs -- cyberethics, cybersafety and cybersecurity -- into the subconscious of K-12 students is being readied by the National Cyber Security Alliance.

    Past Tech Trends & Products: Technology Live Archive 2009

  • Society needs to do absolutely EVERYTHING it can to discourage any image of “acceptance” with such things that may engrain themselves in the younger minds.

    Apple ‘Shake the Baby’ game 2009

  • But slowly building the Peace Corps to the peak it reached when I served in the slums of Bombay in the late 60's does not answer the world's pressing needs, show the world an American response which matches their needs, or engrain a character of service that produces healthy domestic and international public policies.

    Open Letter to General Contractor Barack Obama 2009

  • Society needs to do absolutely EVERYTHING it can to discourage any image of “acceptance” with such things that may engrain themselves in the younger minds.

    Apple ‘Shake the Baby’ game 2009

  • Neither talk offered a strategy that would engrain into our character a better public policy.

    Winning strategy for Scott Ritter, Sun Tzu, and our Constitutional goal of promoting the general welfare 2008

  • (A further demonstration of the larger, obsequious mechanisms at work to engrain the official version.)

    911, an esoteric collection 2008

  • We need a new 21st century army to address needs, stem climate change, spread appropriate technology -- and to engrain service and community building into America's character -- so that tomorrow we'll be too smart to follow simplistic and costly public policies.

    Fresh President and Congress need calloused hands of Americans 2008

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