toughen

[ tuhf-uhn ]
See synonyms for toughen on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with or without object)
  1. to make or become tough or tougher.

Origin of toughen

1
First recorded in 1575–85; tough + -en1

Other words for toughen

Other words from toughen

  • tough·en·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use toughen in a sentence

  • You perhaps have read that “even the NRA” supports toughening mental-illness regulations.

    The Great GOP Mental-Health Hypocrisy | Michael Tomasky | September 20, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
  • Such a boy is already rewarded by the toughening of the will that perseverance brings: he does not need a ribbon on his sweater.

  • And I have gained time by toughening myself, the rest I used to crave at Plattsburg and on the range no longer being necessary.

    At Plattsburg | Allen French
  • I was not standing up to it, nor getting from it that toughening of the inner fibre which it had to yield.

  • The cattle, instead of toughening their muscles by walking to pasture, are waited upon by cow-boys in livery.

    Olympian Nights | John Kendrick Bangs
  • He did not think so much about the ways of God as shrewdly, when he grew older, of toughening muscles and hardening flesh.

    Rose MacLeod | Alice Brown

British Dictionary definitions for toughen

toughen

/ (ˈtʌfən) /


verb
  1. to make or become tough or tougher

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012