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Gradgrind. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From Thomas Gradgrind, a pedantic teacher in Charles Dickens' Hard Times (1854).
Noun
Gradgrind (plural Gradgrinds)
- One who relies solely on scientific measurements and observable facts without taking human nature into consideration.
1860 June, “Representative Art”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 5, number 32:They do just what all the practical men of this practical age are doing, what even the Gradgrinds are doing: they embody ideas; they put thoughts into facts.
1905, H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia:“I was purring. I'm a Gradgrind—it's quite right—anything you can say about Herbert Spencer, vivisectors, materialistic Science or Atheists, applies without correction to me. […] ”
1916, Arthur B. Reeve, The Ear in the Wall:He was a veritable Gradgrind for facts, facts, facts.
Derived terms