hardeningn.
/ˈhɑːdn̩ɪŋ/, /ˈhɑːdnɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈhɑrd(ə)nɪŋ/ 1.
a. The action or process of making something hard or harder in consistency or texture, esp. deliberately, by some special process; spec. the process of making metal harder (cf. harden v. 9). Also: an instance of this.case-, induction, precipitation, secondary hardening etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > constitution of matter > hardness > [noun] > becoming or making hard
hardingeOE
hardingc1405
hardening?c1425
hardening?c1425
duration1617
obduration1654
during1804
society > occupation and work > industry > working with specific materials > working with metal > [noun] > hardening, tempering, or annealing
hardening?c1425
nealing1612
tempering1661
annealing1662
seasoning1731
lighting1831
anneal1868
?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 97 Þe lupe and..the cancre, þat destroyen þe membre wiþ corrocioun (i. gnawynge) and wiþ induracioun (i. hardnynge) [L. induratione].
1566 T. Blundeville Breeding of Horses xi. f. 26v, in Fower Offices Horsemanshippe As touching the hardening of houes, we shall talke more thereof when we come to treate of the diseases of horses.
1617 W. Hamond tr. A. Paré Method curing Wounds xiv. 86 If such a thing were necessary for the hardning thereof [sc. of steel], it might bee easier done at that time when it is first drawn and melted.
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot iii. vii. 113 The obduration of his Posteriors,..almost petrified by continuall hardnings upon his Asses bare backe.
1683 R. Plot in R. T. Gunther Early Sci. in Oxf. (1925) IV. 21 They have two sorts of hard'ning in this Towne, tough-hard'ning, and brittle-hardning.
1742 W. Ellis Timber-tree Improved (ed. 3) II. 198 There be Seasonings of Fire, as for the Scorching and Hardening of Piles.
1823 J. Badcock Domest. Amusem. 138 The plate..has received an injury in the hardening.
1877 Encycl. Brit. VI. 734/1 The hardening is accomplished by heating the blade to a cherry-red heat and suddenly quenching it in cold water.
1904 G. I. Adams et al. Gypsum Deposits U.S. 20 (heading) Hardening of plaster... It has been found that by the use of certain chemicals plaster may be rendered harder than when it sets in the natural way.
1943 B. F. Shepherd in Metal Progress July 105/2 I have coined the term ‘martempering’ to describe this operation of hardening by cooling quickly.
2008 Ullmann's Fibres II. 673/1 The pretreatment of silk (steeping, soupling, degumming, hardening).
b. The action or process of becoming hard or harder in consistency or texture; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > constitution of matter > hardness > [noun] > becoming or making hard
hardingeOE
hardingc1405
hardening?c1425
hardening?c1425
duration1617
obduration1654
during1804
?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 107 Þan it is made a grete flewme, muscylagynouse and plastry or glasen by laste hardnyng [?a1425 N.Y. Acad. Med. induracioun].
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry iv. f. 160 Ye feathers about theyr tayles must be pulled away, lest with the hardning of their doung, their passages be stopped.
1610 G. Markham Maister-peece ii. xcix. 392 As the hoofe beginneth to harden,..put him to grasse, that there it may take a kindly hardening.
1670 Acct. Causes Distempers 4 From hardening of Pease and redning of Bacon, and all Flesh Meats, if boiled therein.
1721 R. Bradley Philos. Acct. Wks. Nature xiv. 162 The hardening of Water into Ice happens only from a less Share of Heat.
1775 S. F. Simmons tr. C. Person Elements Anat. & Animal Œcon. 7 It is by the hardening of the alburnum..in trees that the timber is formed.
1833 Lancet 30 Nov. 370/1 Hardening of the cellular tissue.
1887 J. Newman Notes on Concrete iv. 25 The hardening of slow-setting cements is generally considered more trustworthy than that of quick setting cements.
1901 Pharmaceut. Jrnl. 15 June 771/1 Lactucarium or lettuce opium is formed by the hardening of that fluid into yellowish-brown masses.
1944 W. Morgan in R. Greenhalgh Pract. Builder ix. 301/1 The drying and hardening of fat-lime plasters are necessarily slow.
2007 Univ. Oxf. Bot. Garden News No. 67. 4/1 Telltale signs of this include..hardening of the seedpod followed by splitting.
c. With reference to the walls of blood vessels: the process of becoming abnormally stiff or thick; the result of this process; an instance of this. Esp. in hardening of the arteries (= arteriosclerosis n. 1). Also figurative, sometimes with modifying word (cf. arteriosclerosis n. 2).
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > vascular disorders > [noun] > arteriosclerosis
hardening1831
arteriosclerosis1860
atheroma1875
atherosclerosis1904
1831 A. S. Doane tr. J. F. Meckel Man. Gen., Descr., & Pathol. Anat. I. 117 Bichat admits these facts, but says they do not result from contractibility; but from a horny hardening [Fr. racornissement], which is observed as well after death as during life, and that the arterial tissue never returns to its natural state, after such a contraction.
1841 Lancet 20 Feb. 769/2 He drew a distinction between those cases of phlegmasia dolens, in which there was a mere hardening of the veins, and those in which pus had formed in these canals.
1882 Lancet 5 Aug. 177/2 Here there is a permanent high blood-pressure in the arteries, leading to hypertrophy of the left ventricle, with subsequent hardening of the arteries.
1920 Times 15 Nov. 14/1 He has latterly become steadily more Conservative, less from conviction than from the hardening of his political arteries.
1932 Punch 23 Nov. p. v/1 (advt.) High-pressure living inevitably results in hardening of the arteries and high blood pressure.
1970 New Yorker 17 Oct. 171/1 These maneuvers have all added up to what one astute observer of the talks has described as ‘a hardening of the arteries’.
2008 BBC Good Food Sept. 80/1 These heart-friendly nutrients control levels of homocysteine, which has been associated with hardening of the arteries.
2.
a. The action or process of making a person or thing hard or harder, in various non-physical senses; the fact or condition of being so hardened. Also: an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > easiness > aid, help, or assistance > strengthening or confirmation of immaterial things > [noun]
strenghinga1400
strengthc1400
affirmance1442
roboration1473
confirmation1520
corroboration1529
fortification1530
strengthening1535
hardening1544
establishment1561
re-enforcement1577
comforting1605
reinforcement1605
consolidation1611
establishing1846
undergirding1868
entrenchment1877
entrenching1950
1544 G. Joye Present Consol. Sufferers Persecucion sig. C.ij Hys hardenynge of Pharao, and leadynge men into temtacion.
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. iii. xxiv. f. 236v When the reprobate shalbe striken with blindnesse and hardening of harte, these shalbe sure tokens of his vengeance.
1655 H. Vane Retired Mans Medit. xviii. 304 The perfection of the first Covenant, which man makes use of to the emboldening and hardening of himself in a way of natural good works.
1656 R. Baxter Gildas Salvianus: 1st Pt. iv. 198 The hardening of men in ignorance is not their design.
1707 M. Henry Expos. Five Bks. Moses Gen. vii The gradual approaches and advances of God's judgments, which are designed to bring sinners to repentance, are often abused to the hardening of them in their presumption.
1760 D. Bellamy Compend. Brit. Grammarian in J. Marchant New Compl. Universal Dict. p. xx When the Vowel u immediately follows the Consonant g, it not only loses its own Sound but contributes towards the hardening of the preceding Letter.
1819 Christian Disciple Mar. 158 The first impulse of the mind upon the infliction of pain by way of punishment is..a hardening of heart, not only against those who inflict it, but against the rest of the world.
1899 P. C. Sense Free Enq. Origin Fourth Gospel xi. 442 The judicial notions of the ‘sanctity of contract’ entertained by our judges induces them to enforce, to the..hardening of the mind of the people, rendering it impervious to the growth of feelings of honour, morality, fair play, and fair dealing.
1959 Cambr. Hist. Brit. Empire III. Table of Contents p. xviii Hardening of the system of alliances.
1975 H. G. Johnson On Econ. & Society v. 74 The hardening of certain of Keynes's conclusions into rigid dogmas in the hands of his disciples.
2001 D. Hill Rhythms xliii. 316 The hardening of her heart to keep from being hurt.
b. The action or process of becoming hard or harder, in various non-physical senses; an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [noun] > callousness or hard-heartedness > becoming hard or callous
astonying1607
hardeninga1640
case-hardening1681
searing1720
ossification1820
society > trade and finance > monetary value > price > fluctuation in price > steadiness in price > [noun]
strength1818
firmness1880
hardening1940
a1640 T. Jackson Exact Coll. Wks. (1654) x. xl. 3198 The Lord..saith not, I have hardened Pharaohs heart, but Pharaohs heart is hardened;..which can imply no other hardening then such as did result or rebound upon the sight or consideration of the wonder.
a1669 J. Norman Cases of Conscience (1673) ii. 90 Every stifled Conviction will now add to the hardning of thy Conscience, and to the augmenting of thy shame, sorrow and selfconfusion.
1796 F. Burney Camilla I. ii. iv. 190 A hardening of human feelings against human crimes and human miseries.
1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. v. 83 The coarsening and hardening of mind and manners among the best.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda III. vi. xlviii. 376 Deronda now marked some hardening in a look and manner which were schooled daily to the suppression of feeling.
1883 Jrnl. Soc. Bib. Lit. 3 24 Alternate repentings and hardenings in Pharaoh.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 21 Aug. 5/4 There has been a great hardening on the part of the merchants, who were formerly placing the stones [sc. diamonds] on the market for anything they could fetch.
1940 Economist 6 Jan. 12/2 These difficulties have already had as their effect a general hardening of prices.
2007 Wire May 39/1 The most articulate statements on the hardening of a classicised language of ‘modern jazz’ came from Steve Lacy.
3.
a. The action or process of becoming more hardy or robust. Also: the process of making a person, etc., more hardy or robust; physical conditioning, toughening up.
ΚΠ
1798 tr. C. Meiners in Sel. Most Celebrated Foreign Lit. Jrnls. II. 13 We must carefully distinguish hardiness, or the hardening of the body, from natural hardness and insensibility.
1825 W. P. Dewees Treat. Physical & Med. Treatm. Children 131 This system of hardening, we have in several places condemned.
1878 C. H. Schaible Ess. Systematic Training of Body i. ii. 34 The military system,..in the old days, had demanded the drilling and hardening of the frame.
1902 Daily Chron. 18 Jan. 5/4 The hardening of new-arrived drafts [of troops] is most noticeable.
1925 Amer. Mercury Oct. 185/2 Only regulars and non-regulars who have skilled training and hardening are reliable on the field of battle.
2009 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 13 Sept. (Sports section) 6/2 The physical hardening the players go through makes them harder mentally.
b. The process of acclimatizing cultivated plants to outdoor conditions. See to harden off at harden v. 12, and hardening off n. at Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1839 Hort. Reg. 4 127 (heading) Hardening of plants for planting out in open ground.
1864 Trans. N.Y. State Agric. Soc. 1863 23 724 As the time for the use of the hardening house is so late in the season, its separate heating is of little moment.
1936 Forestry 10 124 By exposure to suitable, but not damagingly low, temperatures plants are rendered more resistant to frost; this is the process known as hardening, and takes place naturally during the autumn.
2009 W. G. Hopkins & N. P. A. Hüner Introd. Plant Physiol. (ed. 4) xiv. 241/1 The process of acclimation to a stress is known as hardening.
Compounds
C1. General attributive (in sense 1).
ΚΠ
1844 G. Dodd in Penny Mag. 27 Apr. 162/2 The saws, or ‘plates’, as they are called, are removed from the hardening-trough.
1885 J. J. Manley in Brit. Alm. Comp. 18 The butter is placed in a Danish cooler or hardening box.
1922 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. 106 225 The plant..had one of the largest carburising and hardening departments in the United States.
1979 S. E. Jørgensen Industr. Waste Water Managem. xiii. 190 (heading) Composition of waste water from a hardening shop.
2003 R. M. Leed Tool & Die Making Troubleshooter viii. 163 Other vacuum furnaces employ a backfill quenching system that rapidly recirculates an inert gas..in the hardening chamber after vacuum pumping has been stopped.
C2. † hardening leather n. Hat-making Obsolete = hardening skin n.
ΚΠ
1750 Universal Mag. Apr. 146/2 Their next care is to harden these bats into closer and more consistent flakes, by pressing down the hardening skin, or leather, upon them.
1764 T. H. Croker et al. Compl. Dict. Arts & Sci. at Hat They next harden the hats into closer flakes, by pressing down the hardening leather upon them.
1799 Estate Inventory in J. F. Roper Abraham Fleming & his Descendants (2003) 387/2 Hatter Tools and hats..1 Cuting knife 1 hardening leather 5 Brushes 38 hats.
hardening off n. = sense 3b.
ΚΠ
1835 Floricultural Cabinet 3 175 As soon as they are rooted, pot them off singly into small pots, and manage them the same as to watering, re-potting, and hardening off, as before detailed.
1864 Trans. N.Y. State Agric. Soc. 1863 23 724 If in boxes, they must be taken from the tank, and at once placed on the hardening off table.
1912 Chambers's Jrnl. Dec. 848/1 Plants raised in this frame require no hardening off.
2006 Gardens Monthly Apr. (Reader's Digest Compl. Veg. Gardener Extract) 28/3 Young plants can start their hardening-off process in the closed frame, with more ventilation given day by day until the frame lights are left open entirely.
hardening-on n. Ceramics the process of giving a second firing to a piece of biscuit ware after decoration, at a relatively low temperature of around 700° Celsius, in order to burn out any oil from the decorating medium and fix the colour to the surface before glazing.
ΚΠ
1844 Leeds Mercury 5 Oct. 1/4 (advt.) There are Two Brown Ware Kilns, One Biscuit, Two Glass, and Two Hardening-on Kilns.
1914 G. J. Cox Pottery xii. 136 The oily medium must be quite dry before the hardening on takes place.
1994 H. Fraser Electric Kiln: User's Man. xiii. 91 The hardening-on firing serves to fix the colour more firmly to the ware.
hardening skin n. Hat-making (now historical) a strip of half-tanned leather (with a damp cloth placed beneath it) through which pressure is applied by hand in order to compact the felt that is to be made into the surface of a hat.
ΚΠ
1750 Universal Mag. Apr. 146/1 The first thing a Hatter provides, is a set of tools proper for his business, as a large knife..a bow..an hardening skin.
1797 Encycl. Brit. VIII. i. 336/1 The capades thus finished, they go on to harden them into closer and more consistent flakes by pressing down a hardening skin or leather thereon; this done, they are carried to the bason.
1895 J. R. Speck Cloth from Loom of Life 248 A hardening skin and a piece of wet cloth is used for this purpose; and the substance is fashioned and shaped as easily as you would a piece of putty.
2000 P. McKnight Stockport Hatting ii. 23 This would be pressed down, first with a wicker ‘hat basket’, and then with a ‘hardening skin’ of half-tanned leather.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
hardeningadj.
/ˈhɑːdn̩ɪŋ/, /ˈhɑːdnɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈhɑrd(ə)nɪŋ/ 1. That makes something hard or harder in consistency or texture. Also: that is becoming hard or harder in consistency or texture.
ΚΠ
1582 S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum vii. lxxii. f. 118/2 Hardning [a1398 BL Add. hardinge] medicines renleth [perh. read renneth] ye matter and maketh it thicke.
1634 T. Johnson tr. A. Paré Chirurg. Wks. xv. xxix. 590 Those things which helpe forwards a Callus must bee drying, incrassating, thickening, hardening and emplasticke.
1670 W. Simpson Hydrol. Ess. 106 What are all Mineral and Mecalline Marcasites, Stones, &c. but the primitive liquid succulencies concreted into more solid bodies by a hardning ferment..aequipollent to the Air?
1725 A. Pope tr. Homer Odyssey II. ix. 292 Half the white stream to hard'ning cheese he prest.
1766 T. Amory Life John Buncle II. v. 143 In obstinate obstructions,..feed on thickning, hardning, and drying meats.
1846 J. von Hammer tr. Evliya Çelebi Narr. Trav. I. ii. lxxx. 231 A kind of hardening glue or mortar used in water-works.
1898 J. B. Johnson Materials of Constr. (ed. 2) xxxi. 613 The mortar is likely to dry out before the water present is taken up by the hardening cement.
1911 C. Palmer Geochem. Interpr. Water Analyses 5 The hardening constituent, calcium, being removed simultaneously from the hard water and from the softening agent.
1995 Earth Oct. 35 (caption) A highly fluid lava, pahoehoe spreads in thin sheets and is sculpted into ropy folds as flow continues below the hardening surface.
2. That becomes hard or harder, or that hardens a person or thing, in various non-physical senses of the verb.
ΚΠ
1613 G. Wither Abuses Stript ii. iv. sig. T4v This same hardning sinne Do seaze vpon the heart once and get in.
a1658 O. Sedgwick Bowels of Tender Mercy (1661) ii. ix. 536 Consider the sad effects and fruits of an hard and hardening heart.
1725 J. Glanvill tr. Horace in Poems 225 The El'ments of pernicious Avarice..Must fashion well our softer Minds, By hardning and severer Disciplines.
1752 J. Mason Lord's Day Evening Entertainm. III. i. 15 Do we not here see the bewitching, the ensnaring, the deceitful and hardening nature of Sin?
1805 Gentleman's Mag. Dec. 1126/2 Thus the hardening breast by degrees becomes reflection-proof.
1857 Frank Leslie's New Family Mag. 2 283/2 Each succeeding day, vanity was doing its hardening work more effectually upon her heart.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 15 Apr. 1/3 The inexorable and hardening passage of twenty years.
1978 Antiques & Art Monitor 28 Oct. 9/3 He explains in detail a hardening customer resistance.
2013 Irish News (Nexis) 28 Aug. 8 Hardening prices in the world market for domestic coal is the main reason for the increase.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?c1425
adj.1582