hard-heartedadj.n.

c1225 (?c1200) Hali Meiðhad (Bodl.) (1940) 546 (MED) Ha is heardre iheortet[a1250 Titus hardre iheorted] þen adamantines stan.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 5982 Nes næuere na mon iboren..þat hæleð weore swa stærc ne swa hærd-iheorted.

?c1400 (c1380) G. Chaucer tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (BL Add. 10340) (1868) ii. met. vi. l. 1466 He was so hard herted þat he myȝt[e] ben domesman or Iuge of hire dede beaute.

a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) 7505 Here es no man lyfand Swa hard-herted..Þat he ne suld have gret dred in thoght.

a1500 in C. Brown Relig. Lyrics 15th Cent. (1939) 17 I cowd not wepe I was so harde hartid.

1558 C. Goodman How Superior Powers xiii. 178 An impudent nation, and hard harted people, with out all pitie and mercie.

1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Africanus Geogr. Hist. Afr. ii. 51 Such a..horrible conflicte, that..would have affrighted any man, were he never so hard harted.

1613 S. Purchas Pilgrimage 736 Neither can the hard-hearted Rockes breake these yeelding Vessels.

a1721 M. Prior Turtle & Sparrow (1723) 11 She soon grew sullen, I hard-hearted.

1841 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Apr. 496/1 Our thoughts run from trinkets, jewels, rings, and their new purchasers, to the last wearers... An auction-room, at best, is a place for the hard-hearted.

1884 Cent. Mag. Nov. 115/1 A plague on those hard-hearted theorists who declaim against the giving of doles in the street!

1968 R. M. Lockley Channel Islands 74 Even hard-hearted employers have forgiven employees absent from work over a low tide.

1994 Scotsman (Nexis) 26 Sept. (headline) Easy pickings to tempt the hard hearted.

2013 Belfast Tel. Online (Nexis) 23 Oct. Working-motherism—a prejudice that expresses itself in derogatory clichés suggesting cold, uncaring, hard-hearted bitches. In high heels.

1583 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. on Deuteronomie clxxxiv. 1142 Let vs deale not so hardheartedlie: for there is not a worse thing than to haue rocked our consciences asleepe after such a fashion, that wee haue no more remorse nor heartbiting in vs.

1765 E. Kimber Generous Briton I. x. 140 That bread, you have so hard-heartedly robb'd them of.

1844 J. Barker Christian 339 Will you slight these children? Will you..treat them hardheartedly, unkindly, or indifferently?

1902 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 798 He is not aware how much they are suffering, but is hard-heartedly having fun with their misery.

2002 Guardian 3 June 21 Human beings are somewhat hard-heartedly rational. Men and women split from economically unsuccessful partners.

1577 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. Ephesians xxviii. f. 204 They that growe beastly after that sort, doo gather such a hard hartednes, as a man cannot bow them.

a1682 Sir T. Browne Christian Morals (1716) ii. 67 The Dens..where Malice, Hardheartedness, and Oppression love to dwell.

1795 E. Fenwick Secresy II. xvii. 185 I am a sober sort of youth, not at all given to hardheartedness and infidelity.

1859 Harper's Mag. Feb. 383/1 I but feigned hard-heartedness in order to try those people yonder.

1902 Amer. Jrnl. Nursing 2 929 The insinuation of hard-heartedness is no new one to nurses.

2000 D. Nicholl in A. Hastings et al. Oxf. Compan. Christian Thought 179/2 He was never to be comfortable amidst the pretence and hard-heartedness of polite society.