Harden \Hard"en\ (h[aum]rd"'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hardened
   (-'nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Hardening (-'n*[i^]ng).] [OE.
   hardnen, hardenen.]
   1. To make hard or harder; to make firm or compact; to
      indurate; as, to harden clay or iron.
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   2. To accustom by labor or suffering to endure with
      constancy; to strengthen; to stiffen; to inure; also, to
      confirm in wickedness or shame; to make unimpressionable.
      "Harden not your heart." --Ps. xcv. 8.
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            I would harden myself in sorrow.      --Job vi. 10.
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	Hardening \Hard"en*ing\, n.
   1. Making hard or harder.
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   2. That which hardens, as a material used for converting the
      surface of iron into steel.
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	hardening
    n 1: abnormal hardening or thickening of tissue
    2: the process of becoming hard or solid by cooling or drying or
       crystallization; "the hardening of concrete"; "he tested the
       set of the glue" [syn: hardening, solidifying,
       solidification, set, curing]
    3: the act of making something harder (firmer or tighter or more
       compact)

	

	99 Moby Thesaurus words for "hardening":
   abidingness, acclimation, acclimatization, accommodation,
   accustoming, adaption, adjustment, agglutination, arteriosclerosis,
   atherosclerosis, breaking, breaking-in, calcification, callusing,
   case hardening, changelessness, clumping, clustering, compression,
   concentration, concretion, condensation, conditioning,
   consolidation, constancy, cornification, crystallization,
   densification, domestication, durability, durableness, duration,
   endurance, familiarization, firming, firmness, fixedness,
   fortification, fossilization, frozenness, granulation, habituation,
   hornification, housebreaking, immobility, immovability,
   immovableness, immutability, induration, indurative, inurement,
   invariability, invariableness, inveteracy, invigoration,
   lapidification, lastingness, lithification, long standing,
   naturalization, orientation, ossification, permanence, permanency,
   perpetualness, persistence, persistency, petrifaction,
   petrifactive, petrification, petrifying, quiescence, refreshment,
   reinforcement, reinvigoration, restrengthening, revivification,
   rigidity, sclerosis, seasoning, setting, solidification, solidity,
   stability, standing, stasis, steadfastness, steeling, stiffening,
   strengthening, taming, tempering, torpor, toughening, training,
   unchangeability, unchangingness, vitrifaction, vitrification