Hardened

//ˈhɑːdn̩d// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    simple past and past participle of harden form-of, participle, past

    "hardened steel"

Adjective
  1. 1
    Having been accustomed or desensitized to something unpleasant through exposure or experience; inured.

    "hardened police officers"

  2. 2
    Unfeeling; pitiless; callous.

    "The bloody scene could reduce even the most hardened soldier to tears."

  3. 3
    Firmly established in a behavior seen as bad; unlikely to change one's ways; inveterate.

    "hardened criminals"

  4. 4
    Having extra defences against attack; highly fortified.

    "a hardened air base"

Adjective
  1. 1
    converted to solid form (as concrete) wordnet
  2. 2
    used of persons; emotionally hardened wordnet
  3. 3
    protected against attack (especially by nuclear weapons) wordnet
  4. 4
    made hard or flexible or resilient especially by heat treatment wordnet
  5. 5
    made tough by habitual exposure wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
temperedannealedcalloushardimpenitentindurated

Example

More examples

"Years of farm work have hardened his body."

Related phrases

battle-hardenedcase-hardenedradiation-hardened

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.