Definitions for: Harden


[v] cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate; "He was inured to the cold"
[v] make fit; "This trip will season even the hardiest traveller"
[v] harden by reheating and cooling in oil; "temper steel"
[v] become hard or harder; "The wax hardened"
[v] make hard or harder; "The cold hardened the butter"



Webster (1913) Definition: Hard"en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hardened; p. pr. & vb.
n. Hardening.] [OE. hardnen, hardenen.]
1. To make hard or harder; to make firm or compact; to
indurate; as, to harden clay or iron.

2. To accustom by labor or suffering to endure with
constancy; to strengthen; to stiffen; to inure; also, to
confirm in wickedness or shame; to make unimpressionable.
``Harden not your heart.'' --Ps. xcv. 8.

I would harden myself in sorrow. --Job vi. 10.


Hard"en, v. i.
1. To become hard or harder; to acquire solidity, or more
compactness; as, mortar hardens by drying.

The deliberate judgment of those who knew him [A.
Lincoln] has hardened into tradition. --The Century.

2. To become confirmed or strengthened, in either a good or a
bad sense.

They, hardened more by what might most reclaim.
--Milton.

Synonyms: indurate, inure, season, temper

Antonyms: soften

See Also: accustom, brace oneself for, calcify, callous, callus, cauterise, cauterize, change, encrust, face-harden, habituate, incrust, modify, prepare for, steel oneself against, steel onself for, toughen

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