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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Harden

Härd'en, v. t.

verbtransitive

(härd'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. HARDENED; p. pr. & vb. n. HARDENING.] [Eng. hard; A-S. heardian, O. H. Ger. hartjan.]

  1. To make hard or more hard; to make firm or compact; to indurate; as, to harden iron or steel; to harden clay.
  2. To make hard and strong; to make firm; to strengthen; to accustom by labor or suffering; to inure; also, to confirm in wickedness, obstinacy, insensibility, or impudence.

I would harden myself in sorrow. Job vi. 10.

Härd'en, v. i.

verbintransitive

(härd'n), v. i. 1. To become hard, or more hard; to acquire solidity, or more compactness; as, mortar hardens by drying. 2. To become confirmed or strengthened, in either a good or bad sense. They hardened more by what might most reclaim. Milton.