Gradgrindian

From Gradgrind +‎ -ian, name of a pedantic character in Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times.

Gradgrindian (comparative more Gradgrindian, superlative most Gradgrindian)

1. Having a soulless devotion to facts and figures; inflexibly utilitarian.

   Synonym: Gradgrindish

   • 2006 November 13, “Winners must be facts-obsessed in pursuit for truth”, in Financial Times:

     But today's winning businesses are positively Gradgrindian in their pursuit of the truth.

   • 2016 February 28, John Old, “The EU refendum: Europe’s antidote to alienation and scapegoating is hope”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Whether one favours a Gradgrindian Thatcherism that removes all worker rights, or a Corbynista fantasy of wholesale nationalisation, we will find these are impossible, given the reach of the Brussels acquis.

   • 2018 February 16, Peter Bradshaw, “I’ve never known my times tables. Frankly, who needs them?”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     But I have never quite got my head around my times tables, which I think are a Gradgrindian chanting fetish periodically revived by politicians who, if they are honest with themselves, have never really needed times tables either.

Sometimes used without the initial capital.

• Gradgrindery
• Gradgrindish
• Gradgrindism