harden up

verb

1. (intr) nautical to tighten the sheets of a sailing vessel so as to prevent luffing

Example Sentences

“You stay soft, get eaten — only natural to harden up,” Mitski sings on this sleek but deceptively vulnerable pop song, as her voice, fittingly, oscillates between icy cool and wrenching ardor.

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The only defense is to harden up and hit back.

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A disco march laced with firm piano chords and blippy synthesizers carries her through “Stay Soft” as she counsels, “Open up your heart/Like the gates of hell,” then declares, “You stay soft, get beaten/Only natural to harden up.”

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“If it’s not set in stone, it’s hard to fix. You can’t come back. You can’t do things soft and come back a year later and say, we’re going to harden up.”

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“We’ve got to kind of harden up, we’ve got to get gritty, we’ve got to be tougher to score against and be the best version of ourselves,” Bennett said.

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