'cross-grained' definitions:

Definition of 'cross-grained'

adjective

Difficult to deal with [syn: contrarious, cross- grained]

adjective

Of timber; having fibers running irregularly rather than in parallel [syn: curly-grained, cross-grained, wavy- grained]

From: GCIDE

nonparallel \nonparallel\ adj.
1. not parallel; -- of lines or linear objects. Opposite of parallel. [Narrower terms: {bias, catacorner, cata-cornered, catercorner, cater-cornered, catty-corner, catty-cornered, diagonal, kitty-corner, kitty-cornered, oblique, skew, skewed, slanted ; {crossed, decussate, intersectant, intersecting}; {cross-grained ; diagonal; {orthogonal, orthographic, rectangular, right-angled ; right, perpendicular; {angled ; convergent] Also See: convergent, divergent, diverging. [WordNet 1.5]
2. (Computers) Not using parallel processing; -- of computers. [Narrower terms: serial] PJC]