Harden

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (intransitive)
• HYPHEN: hard=en

CIDE DICTIONARY

Harden, v. t. [OE. hardnen, hardenen.].

•  To make hard or harder; to make firm or compact; to indurate; as, to harden clay or iron.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  Ps. xcv. 8.  [1913 Webster]

  "I would harden myself in sorrow."  [1913 Webster]

Harden, v. i. 

•  To become hard or harder; to acquire solidity, or more compactness; as, mortar hardens by drying.  [1913 Webster]

  "The deliberate judgment of those who knew him [A. Lincoln] has hardened into tradition."  [1913 Webster]
•  To become confirmed or strengthened, in either a good or a bad sense.  [1913 Webster]

  "They, hardened more by what might most reclaim."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Harden, v.
1 tr. & intr. make or become hard or harder.
2 intr. & tr. become, or make (one's attitude etc.), uncompromising or less sympathetic.
3 intr. (of prices etc.) cease to fall or fluctuate.

Idiom

harden off inure (a plant) to cold by gradual increase of its exposure.

Derivative

hardener n.

THESAURUS

Harden

acclimate, acclimatize, accommodate, accustom, adapt, adjust, anneal, be tough, beef up, brace, brace up, break, break in, brutalize, buttress, cake, calcify, callous, case harden, caseharden, compact, concrete, condition, confirm, conform, congeal, consolidate, cornify, crystallize, densify, domesticate, domesticize, dry, endure, establish, familiarize, firm, fix, fortify, fossilize, freeze, gentle, gird, habituate, hang tough, housebreak, indurate, intensify, inure, invigorate, lapidify, lithify, naturalize, nerve, orient, orientate, ossify, petrify, prop, refresh, reinforce, reinvigorate, restrengthen, season, set, shore up, solidify, steel, stiffen, strengthen, support, sustain, tame, temper, toughen, train, turn to stone, undergird, vitrify, wont

ROGET THESAURUS

Harden

Habit

VB be wont, fall into a rut, fall into a custom, tread the beaten track, follow the beaten track, tread the beaten path, follow the beaten, stare super antiquas vias, move in a rut, run on in a groove, go round like a horse in a mill, go on in the old jog trot way, habituate, inure, harden, season, caseharden, accustom, familiarize, naturalize, acclimatize, keep one's hand in, train, get into the way, get into the knack of, learn, cling to, adhere to, repeat, acquire a habit, contract a habit, fall into a habit, acquire a trick, contract a trick, fall into a trick, addict oneself to, take to, get into, be habitual, prevail, come into use, become a habit, take root, gain upon one, grow upon one.

Strength

VB be strong, be stronger, overmatch, render strong, give strength, strengthen, invigorate, brace, nerve, fortify, sustain, harden, case harden, steel, gird, screw up, wind up, set up, gird up one's loins, brace up one's loins, recruit, set on one's legs, vivify, refresh, refect, reinforce, reenforce.

Hardness

VB render hard, harden, stiffen, indurate, petrify, temper, ossify, vitrify, accrust.