| 释义 |
Gradgrind|ˈgrædgraɪnd|
Name of the mill-owner in Dickens's Hard Times (1854), ‘a man of facts and calculations’, used allusively for: one who is hard and cold, and solely interested in facts. Hence ˈGradgrinding, ˈGradgrindery.
1855Putnam's Mag. Jan. 76/2 There have not been wanting travelled Gradgrinds to assure us that the song from his lips was a humbug and a sham. 1871E. Eggleston Hoosier Schoolmaster (1872) v. 37 You, my Gradgrind friend, you think me sentimental. 1920Glasgow Herald 14 Aug. 5 A..metropolis of ant-like industry and social Gradgrindery. 1924Ibid. 18 Apr. 8 A nation of Gradgrinds, immersed in work and money-getting, and denying themselves and their employees any opportunity of recreation. 1925Public Opinion 7 Aug. 122/1 The gradgrinding system. 1927United Free Ch. Mission Rec. Sept. 379/2 These self-appointed Gradgrinds seem to imagine that their actions are pleasing to the Almighty. 1958R. Williams Culture & Society i. v. 94 Public commissions, Blue Books, Parliamentary legislation—all these, in the world of Hard Times—are Gradgrindery. 1968Listener 25 July 124/1 Sidney and Beatrice [Webb] instructed Asquith, Balfour, Churchill... Gradgrinds they may have been—it is Beatrice's own self-description—but one cannot deny them greatness. 1971Where? Oct. 308/1 The interest motif can be just as bewildering as Gradgrindery, and it should be put into reverse; namely, it is the teacher's task to make interesting that which is relevant. |