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harden

verb
/ˈhɑɹdn̩/US/ˈhɑːdn̩/UK

Etymology

From Middle English hardenen, equivalent to hard + -en. Cognate with Danish hærdne (“to harden; cure”), Swedish hårdna (“to harden”), Norwegian herdne (“to harden”), Icelandic harðna (“to harden”).

  1. inherited from hardenen

Definitions

  1. To become hard.

    • The Chief Medical Officer of London Transport believes that public opinion against smoking will harden to the point of a total bar on the Underground, as in other countries.

  2. To make something hard or harder.

  3. To strengthen.

    • In view of the system's relatively low cost, the preferred alternative could be for the military user to avail himself of multiple base stations rather than seeking to harden the base station hardware for defense applications.
  4. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. To modify (a website or other system) to make it resistant to malicious attacks.

    2. To become or make (a person or thing) resistant or less sensitive.

      • When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

    3. To get an erection.

      • He hardened as he imagined himself running his hands over her small breasts

    4. To become or make (a consonant) more fortis

      To become or make (a consonant) more fortis; to (cause to) undergo fortition.

    5. To unpalatalize or velarize.

      • Of course one needs to keep in mind the fact that *tʹ and *dʹ are hardened before *e and *i in Ukrainian and Rusyn[…]
      • Belarussian preserved soft labials before vowels, hardened rʹ to r, and affricated tʹ and dʹ[…]

    6. Alternative form of hurden (“coarse linen”).

    7. A surname.

    8. A place name

      A place name:

The neighborhood

Derived

caseharden, case harden, deharden, enharden, forharden, hammer-harden, hardenability, hardenable, hardened, hardener, hardening, hardenite, harden off, harden one's neck, harden someone's heart, harden up, overharden, photoharden, preharden, reharden, superharden, unharden

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at harden. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01harden02strengthen03intensify04render05rendition06artwork07sculpture

A definitional loop anchored at harden. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at harden

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA