1. (

• harden ,
• indurate

) become hard or harder; "The wax hardened" ;

2. (

• harden ,
• indurate ,

) make hard or harder; "The cold hardened the butter" ;

3. (

• temper ,
• harden ,

) harden by reheating and cooling in oil; "temper steel" ;

4. (

• season ,
• harden ,

) make fit; "This trip will season even the hardiest traveller" ;

5. (

• inure ,
• harden ,
• indurate ,

) cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate; "He was inured to the cold" ;

1. (

• case-hardened ,
• hardened ,
• hard-boiled

) used of persons; emotionally hardened; "faced a case-hardened judge" ;

2. (

• tempered ,
• treated ,
• hardened ,
• toughened ,

) made hard or flexible or resilient especially by heat treatment; "a sword of tempered steel"; "tempered glass" ;

3. (

• hardened ,

) protected against attack (especially by nuclear weapons); "hardened missile silos" ;

4. (

• enured ,
• inured ,
• hardened

) made tough by habitual exposure; "hardened fishermen"; "a peasant, dark, lean-faced, wind-inured"- Robert Lynd; "our successors...may be graver, more inured and equable men"- V.S.Pritchett ;

5. (

• hardened ,
• set

) converted to solid form (as concrete) ;