Grad´grind

( Thomas ), a man of facts and realities. Everything about him is square; his forehead is square, and so is his fore-finger, with which he emphasizes all he says. Formerly he was in the wholesale hardware line. In his greatne he becomes M.P. for Coketown, and he lives at Stone Lodge, a mile or so from town. He prides himself on being eminently practical; and though not a bad man at heart, he blights his children by his hard, practical way of bringing them up. Mrs. Grad grind , wife of Thomas Grad grind. A little thin woman, always taking physic, without receiving from it any benefit. She looks like an indifferently executed transparency without light enough behind the figure. She is always complaining, always peevish, and dies soon after the marriage of her daughter Louisa. Tom Grad grind , son of the above, a sullen young man, much loved by his sister, and holding an office in the bank of his brother-in-law, Josiah Bounder by. Tom robs the bank, and throws suspicion on Stephen Black pool, one of the hands in Bounder by’s factory. When found out, Tom takes refuge in the circus of the town, disguised as a black servant, till he effects his escape from England. Louisa Grad grind , eldest daughter of Thomas Grad grind, M.P. She marries Josiah Bounder by, banker and mill-owner. Louisa has been so hardened by her bringing up, that she appears cold and indifferent to everything, but she dearly loves her brother Tom.—C. Dickens, Hard Times , (1854).