grain of the wood

Kazuo Ishiguroの "When We Were Orphants" を読んでいます。
かなり前（8/2/2011）に覚えた "grain" が次の様に出てきました。
It had split cleanly along the grain of the wood, but the two pieces were lying there side by side; I could see also part of the lattice-work by which it had once been fixed to the front entrance.
ここでは "grain of the wood" は木目となります。英英辞書での説明を下記に引用します。
・Oxford English Dictionary: The longitudinal arrangement or pattern of fibers in wood, paper, etc.: ‘he scored along the grain of the table with the knife’
・Cambridge English Dictionary: the natural patterns of lines in the surface of wood or cloth: to cut something along/against the grain
以前（10/20/2015）"go against the grain" なる表現も取り上げましたね。