What does "harden" mean?
Harden: 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. "Harden not your heart." Ps. xcv.
Additional senses
- 2.I would harden myself in sorrow. Job vi.
- 3.1. 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.
- 4.To become confirmed or strengthened, in either a good or a bad sense. They, hardened more by what might most reclaim. Milton.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00