harden
/ˈhɑːd(ə)n
/verb
1Make or become hard or harder: [no object]: wait for the glue to harden [with object]: bricks which seem to have been hardened by firing...
- As the crystals form connections, the concrete stiffens, hardens, and gains strength.
- These are essential for keeping fat and water dispersed evenly in an emulsion, and then binding the free water after freezing and hardening so ice crystal formation is negligible.
- The glue-on patches have been just as ineffective, with most failures coming when the glue hardens and cracks and the patch peels away.
Synonyms
solidify, set, become hard, become solid, congeal, clot, coagulate, stiffen, thicken, cake, freeze, bake, crystallize;
strengthen, reinforce
technical anneal, vulcanize, ossify, petrify
rare indurate, inspissate, gelatinize
1.1Make or become more severe and less sympathetic: [with object]: she hardened her heart...
- They'll trumpet their exemplar's views when he says too much gothic severity hardens the heart, but probably don't care to publicise such statements as this.
- A glut of sob stories, short memories and disenchantment over aid funds will create a backlash that hardens people's hearts toward tragedy.
- The opening line was, ‘Immigration, it seems, hardens hearts and softens brains like few other issues’.
Synonyms
toughen, desensitize, inure, make insensitive, make tough, make unfeeling, case-harden, harden someone's heart;
deaden, numb, benumb, anaesthetize;
brutalize, make callous
rare indurate
1.2Make or become tougher and more clearly defined: [no object]: suspicion hardened into certainty [with object]: this served only to harden the resolve of the island nations...
- The spectacle has now hardened into tradition.
- The country has long since hardened into its own shape, and whether it holds together or breaks into pieces is largely up to the Iraqis who now have it in their hands.
- He wasn't terribly popular in our part of the constituency and rumours, some of which have hardened into allegations, abounded.
1.3 [no object] (Of prices of shares, commodities, etc.) rise and remain steady at a higher level: if oil prices harden at the end of this century...
- Trade has kept pretty steady over the past week, with lamb prices hardening in response to smaller numbers on the market.
- Goldman Sachs believes oil prices are continuing to harden and that buying at $55 per barrel forward offers huge potential gains to investors.
- He said ‘As the prospects of a bumper EU harvest fade rapidly due to adverse weather conditions, market prices for grain will harden.’
Phrases
hardening of the arteries
Phrasal verbs
harden something off
Derivatives
hardener
/ noun ...- They are made of chemo ceramic - a mixture of ceramic powder with 15 hardeners, including sodium bentonite, quartz and felspur, and burnt over 24 hours.
- Every time you uncover a little bit of bone, you pour hardener over it to help protect it from being scratched or shattered.
- Liquid hardeners can penetrate some slabs as much as 1/8 inch, and can increase the surface abrasion resistance by 25% or more, according to Dianne Carey, senior chemist for W.R. Meadows, Hampshire, Ill.