hardened, ppl. a.
(ˈhɑːd(ə)nd)
[f. harden v. + -ed1.]
1. Rendered hard, indurated.
| 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 24 Upon his crest the hardned yron fell. 1676 Dryden Aurengz. i. i. 365 The laborious Hind Whose harden'd Hands did long in Tillage toil. 1730 [see quenching vbl. n. 1]. 1874 Boutell Arms & Arm. ii. 38 Bronze or hardened brass. |
2. Rendered unfeeling or callous; hard-hearted; obdurately settled or determined in a course.
| c 1375 St. Leg. Saints, Mathias 455 Sum sa hardnyt ware þat þai Vald trew til hyme be na way. c 1470 Henry Wallace x. 283 Thai hardnyt hors fast on the gret ost raid. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 65 Some are..so hardened..that they care not for their countrie. a 1605 Montgomerie Devot. Poems iv. 59 Stoup, hardint hairt, befor the Lord. 1722 De Foe Plague (1754) 42 The very Buryers of the Dead, who were the hardnedest Creatures in Town. 1740 Wesley Wks. (1872) I. 285, I was desired to pray with an old hardened sinner. 1850 Scoresby Whaleman's Advent. (1859) ix. 124 The most hardened grumbler. |
3. Rendered hard (see hard a. 14 f).
| 1960 Aeroplane XCIX. 588/2 In the case of Atlas, this hurried development has resulted in four different types of operational launch site—unprotected, semi-protected, semi-hardened and hardened—and immense cost has been a feature of the programme. 1962 Listener 5 Apr. 605/2 A relatively small number of ‘hardened’, invulnerable, I.C.B.M.s. |
Hence ˈhardenedness.
| 1571 Golding Calvin on Ps. xxxii. 3 The hardenednesse of our flesh. 1790 G. Walker Serm. II. xxix. 309 A kind of brutality and hardendness. |