Meanings
plural Gradgrinds
- One who relies solely on scientific measurements and observable facts without taking human nature into consideration.
He was a veritable Gradgrind for facts, facts, facts.
1916, Arthur B. Reeve, The Ear in the Wall2 more examples
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.
1860 June, “Representative Art”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 5, number 32“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. […]”
1905, H. G. Wells, A Modern Utopia
Origin
From Thomas Gradgrind, a pedantic teacher in Charles Dickens' Hard Times (1854).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Gradgrind. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gradgrind
“Gradgrind.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gradgrind. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Gradgrind,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Gradgrind.
Source: Gradgrind on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.