AGAINST THE GRAIN (COLLAR, or HAIR), phr. (colloquial).—Contrary to inclination; unpleasant; unwillingly done (GROSE).
1589. NASHE, Martin’s Months Minde [GROSART, i. 188]. For hee euer went AGAINST THE HAIRE.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 3. If you should fight, you go AGAINST THE HAIR of your profession.
1621. MONTAGUE, Diatribe, 168. This translation cannot passe by you, being somewhat AGAINST THE HAIRE for you.
1661. MIDDLETON, The Mayor of Quinborough, xi. 122. Books in women’s hands are as much AGAINST THE HAIR methinks, as to see men wear stomachers.
1673. DRYDEN, Amboyna, i. This whoresome cutting of throats,… goes a little AGAINST THE GRAIN. Ibid. (1693), Juvenal, I. 202. Though much AGAINST THE GRAIN forc’d to retire.
1709. STEELE, Tatler, No. 2. Nothing in nature is so ungrateful as storytelling AGAINST THE GRAIN.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 81. My present occupation is much AGAINST THE GRAIN.
1868. WILKIE COLLINS, The Moonstone, I. xi. The other servants followed my lead, sorely AGAINST THE GRAIN, of course, but all taking the view that I took.
1875. H. ROGERS, The Superhuman Origin of the Bible, i. A system of ethics, so much AGAINST THE GRAIN as that of the Gospel.
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 114. If they owe their governors a few pounds they are working an uphill game, or AGAINST COLLAR.
1884. W. C. RUSSELL, Jack’s Courtship, xxiii. It went AGAINST MY GRAIN to leave the poor little chap alone.
TO RUN AGAINST, verb phr. (colloquial).—To meet by accident: e.g., I RAN AGAINST him the other day in Brighton.
