harden

present singular third person hardens · participle present hardening · participle past hardened · past hardened

1. intransitiveTo 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.

   1959 May 28, “Accommodation for Non-Smokers”, in Railway Magazine, pages 295-296

2. ergativetransitiveTo make something hard or harder.
3. figurativelytransitiveTo 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.

   2002, Jane's International Defense Review, volume 35

   1 more example

   Ramos had locked Salah’s right arm and turned him, judo-style, as they lost balance going for the same ball. Television replays hardened the suspicion it was a calculated move on Ramos’s part and, when Salah landed with a hell of a thud, the damage was considerable.

   2018 May 26, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, in The Guardian (London)

4. transitivecomputingTo modify (a website or other system) to make it resistant to malicious attacks.
5. ambitransitiveTo become or make (a person or thing) resistant or less sensitive.

   (obs.)

   1 more example

   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.

   KJV, Exodus 4:21

   Synonyms: inure, roborate

6. informalintransitiveTo get an erection.

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

   1999 August 2, Karen Mitchell, “Files from the Feminet BBS NOVAD5.TXT 38.38 KB”, in alt.sex.stories.tg (Usenet)

7. ambitransitivehuman sciencesTo become or make (a consonant) more fortis; to (cause to) undergo fortition.
8. Slavic phonologyTo unpalatalize or velarize.

   Belarussian preserved soft labials before vowels, hardened rʹ to r, and affricated tʹ and dʹ[…]

   2013 February 1, Philipp Strazny, Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Routledge, →ISBN, page 914

   1 more example

   Of course one needs to keep in mind the fact that *tʹ and *dʹ are hardened before *e and *i in Ukrainian and Rusyn[…]

   2007, Stefan Pugh, A New Historical Grammar of the East Slavic Languages

plural hardens

1. alternativecountableuncountableAlternative form of hurden (“coarse linen”).

plural Hardens

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. A place name:
   1. countableuncountableA suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England (OS grid ref SK0101).
   2. countableuncountableA village and civil parish (with a village council) in the Metropolitan Borough of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE0838).
   3. countableuncountableA town in Hilltops council area, southern New South Wales, Australia.