Hard·en v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hardened p. pr. & vb. n. Hardening ]
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.”
I would harden myself in sorrow. --Job vi. 10.
Hard·ened a.
1. Made hard, or harder, or compact; made unfeeling or callous; made obstinate or obdurate; confirmed in error or vice.
Syn: -- Impenetrable; hard; obdurate; callous; unfeeling; unsusceptible; insensible. See Obdurate.
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hardened
adj 1: used of persons; emotionally hardened; "faced a
case-hardened judge" [syn: case-hardened, hard-boiled]
2: made hard or flexible or resilient especially by heat
treatment; "a sword of tempered steel"; "tempered glass"
[syn: tempered, treated, toughened] [ant: untempered]
3: made tough by habitual exposure; "hardened fishermen"; "a
peasant, dark, lean-faced, wind-inured"- Robert Lynd; "our
successors...may be graver, more inured and equable men"-
V.S.Pritchett [syn: enured, inured]
4: converted to solid form (as concrete) [syn: set]