Harden /(härd"'n)/

Hard·en

Harden

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Hardened; p. pr. & vb. n. Hardening

  1. To make hard or harder; to make firm or compact; to indurate; as, to harden clay or iron.
  2. To accustom by labor or suffering to endure with constancy; to strengthen; to stiffen; to inure; also, to confirm in wickedness or shame; to make unimpressionable.
    I would harden myself in sorrow.
    — Job vi. 10.

Harden

v. i.
  1. To become hard or harder; to acquire solidity, or more compactness; as, mortar hardens by drying.
    The deliberate judgment of those who knew him [A. Lincoln] has hardened into tradition.
    — The Century.
  2. To become confirmed or strengthened, in either a good or a bad sense.
    They, hardened more by what might most reclaim.