hard-grained
adj1
Having a dense firm grain.
- hard-grained wood
2
Uninviting; dour.
- A few sentences will suffice to indicate an idea of it. The pervading characteristic of all our Scottish songs seems to be that hard-grained, and not unfrequently sarcastic sagacity, which is the national mark, go where you will.1832, The ladies' cabinet of fashion, music and romance:
- Though a hard-grained man, close, dry, and silent, he can enjoy old wine with the best. He has a priceless bin of port in some artful cellar under the Fields, which is one of his many secrets.1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC: