hardened
/ˈhɑːdənd
/adjective
1Having become or been made hard or harder: hardened steel...
- The same mix characteristics that make it hard for water to penetrate into the hardened concrete make it tough for the bleed water to get out.
- It was still hard, but the hardened clay came off a little.
- A mouthpiece is made for the instrument of gum or hardened wax.
1.1Strengthened or made secure against attack, especially by nuclear weapons: the silos are hardened against air attack...
- Installing thick, hardened glass in a steel frame can effectively disperse blast pressure from the glass to the frame to the walls.
- It is made with A514 steel and hardened bushings and requires no additional hydraulics.
- Machining this tough hardened steel is more time-consuming and difficult, but it allows parts to be machined to very tight tolerances.
Synonyms
strengthened, fortified, reinforced, toughened, thickened
literary girded
rare embastioned
2 [attributive] Very experienced in a particular job or activity and therefore not easily upset by its more unpleasant aspects: hardened police officers [in combination]: a battle-hardened veteran...
- But I am a hardened, experienced and seasoned reporter and I have been around long enough not to be taken in by appearances.
- ‘We might not have any superstars, but our current team has plenty of hardened experience’, explains secretary John Downie.
- The experiences kind of hardened us against the club, and it is actually only in the last week, with what has happened to them, that our members have been discussing them.
Synonyms
inured, desensitized, deadened, accustomed, habituated, acclimatized, used;
coarsened
rare indurate
2.1Utterly fixed in a habit or way of life seen as bad: hardened criminals a hardened liar...
- This was especially so in a penal colony where many of the convicts were hardened criminals and many of the free settlers were themselves ex-convicts and impulsive men.
- We did run into a few scary guys, but with the majority of them it was almost impossible to see them as hardened criminals.
- And we're dealing with a real hardened criminal that's violated, I believe, just about every international law.
Synonyms
inveterate, seasoned, habitual, chronic, compulsive, confirmed, accustomed, dyed-in-the-wool;
through and through;
incorrigible, incurable, irredeemable, impenitent, unreformable, unregenerate, reprobate, obdurate, shameless