Gram stain
n 1: a staining technique used to classify bacteria; bacteria
are stained with gentian violet and then treated with
Gram's solution; after being decolorized with alcohol and
treated with safranine and washed in water, those that
retain the gentian violet are Gram-positive and those that
do not retain it are Gram-negative [syn: {Gram's method},
{Gram method}, {Gram's procedure}, {Gram's stain}, {Gram
stain}]