Associations to the word «Harden»

Wiktionary

HARDEN, verb. (intransitive) To become hard (tough, resistant to pressure).
HARDEN, verb. (transitive) (ergative) To make something hard or harder (tough, resistant to pressure).
HARDEN, verb. (transitive) (dated) To become or make a person or thing resistant or less sensitive.
HARDEN SOMEONE'S HEART, verb. (idiomatic) (usually reflexive) (dated) To make someone more resistant to something.

Dictionary definition

HARDEN, verb. Become hard or harder; "The wax hardened".
HARDEN, verb. Make hard or harder; "The cold hardened the butter".
HARDEN, verb. Harden by reheating and cooling in oil; "temper steel".
HARDEN, verb. Make fit; "This trip will season even the hardiest traveller".
HARDEN, verb. Cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate; "He was inured to the cold".

Wise words

Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.
Noam Chomsky