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.
This high-temperature firing process works somewhat like baking clay in a kiln, causing the zirconia particles to fuse together and form a dense, hardened material.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
Netting and wire meshes around infrastructure can be useful against drones, and hardened shelters can help protect resources that have to be on the surface, such as aircraft, fuel, personnel and equipment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
Confidential,’” says Chhiu of the stunts in “Spider-Noir,” which follows Cage as a hardened private detective confronting the criminal underbelly of 1930s New York.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
These weapons allow the US to conduct precision strikes against hardened military targets, such as command bunkers or fortified military facilities, without putting manned aircraft in harm's way.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Somewhere inside him, something soft and creative and vulnerable hardened, a mockingbird turning to stone.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
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.
