Hardihood
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Unyielding boldness and daring; firmness in doing something that exposes one to difficulty, danger, or calamity; intrepidness. countable, uncountable
"[…] he came to impart other news; to prepare the Earl for death; for the morrow was appointed for his execution. He received the intelligence with the firm hardihood of indignant virtue, disdaining to solicit, and disdaining to repine […]"
- 2 the trait of being willing to undertake things that involve risk or danger wordnet
- 3 Excessive boldness; foolish daring; offensive assurance. countable, uncountable
"[…] that God should enact a dispensation for hard hearts to do that wherby they must live in priviledg’d adultery, however it go for the receav’d opinion, I shall ever disswade my self from so much hardihood as to beleeve:"
- 4 Ability to withstand extreme conditions, hardiness. (of a plant) countable, uncountable
"The cheapness and hardihood of the musk-plant and marigold, to say nothing of their peculiar odour, has made them the most popular of “roots” […]"
Example
More examples"He had not kept his bowels and nervous system, all his life long, under the influence of rum, tobacco, opium, coffee, tea, or highly seasoned food. He did not it is true, wholly deny himself any one of these, except opium and tobacco; but he only used them occasionally, and even then in great moderation. Nor was it from mere indigence, or culpable stinginess that he ate and drank, for the most part in a healthful manner. It seemed to be from a conviction of the necessity of being "temperate in all things;" and that such a course as he pursued tended to hardihood."
Etymology
From hardy + -hood. Compare Dutch hardigheid (“hardness, callousness”), German Hartigkeit (“hardness”).
More for "hardihood"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.