hardened
Americanadjective
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made or become hard or harder.
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pitiless; unfeeling.
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firmly established or unlikely to change; inveterate.
a hardened criminal.
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inured; toughened.
a hardened trooper.
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rigid; unyielding.
a hardened attitude.
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(of a missile base) equipped to launch missiles from underground silos.
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(of a missile) capable of being launched from an underground silo.
adjective
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rigidly set, as in a mode of behaviour
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toughened, as by custom; seasoned
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(of a nuclear missile site) constructed to withstand a nuclear attack
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hardened
Middle English word dating back to 1325–75; see origin at harden, -ed 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Hardened exterior materials like rusted and black steel, corrugated metal and concrete nonetheless have complex movement and texture.
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 8, 2025
Hardened aid officials with long careers trying to help civilians in warzones have told me they have never seen anything as bad.
From BBC • Feb. 7, 2024
Hardened by years of smoldering war in their country’s east, and in any case not inclined to contemplate catastrophe right before the holiday, many have put the risk out of mind.
From New York Times • Dec. 30, 2021
The tossing spray of Cocheco's fall Hardened to ice on its rocky wall, As through Dover town in the chill, gray dawn, Three women passed, at the cart-tail drawn!
From Salon • Sep. 3, 2021
Yet here's the test to prove you kin With those to whom we trust our fate, Sober and steadfast, clean and straight, In that stern school of discipline Hardened to war against the foe within.
From Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, September 23, 1914 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
