From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
harden
v 1: become hard or harder; "The wax hardened" [syn: indurate]
[ant: soften]
2: make hard or harder; "The cold hardened the butter" [syn:
indurate] [ant: soften]
3: harden by reheating and cooling in oil; "temper steel" [syn:
temper]
4: make fit; "This trip will season even the hardiest
traveller" [syn: season]
5: cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate; "He was
inured to the cold" [syn: inure, indurate]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
I would harden myself in sorrow. --Job vi. 10.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Harden \Hard"en\, v. i.
1. To become hard or harder; to acquire solidity, or more
compactness; as, mortar hardens by drying.
[1913 Webster]
The deliberate judgment of those who knew him [A.
Lincoln] has hardened into tradition. --The Century.
[1913 Webster]
2. To become confirmed or strengthened, in either a good or a
bad sense.
[1913 Webster]
They, hardened more by what might most reclaim.
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Hurden \Hur"den\, n. [From Hurds.]
A coarse kind of linen; -- called also harden. [Prov. Eng.]
[1913 Webster]