hardihoods

Noun

hardihood (countable and uncountable, plural hardihoods)

1. Unyielding boldness and daring; firmness in doing something that exposes one to difficulty, danger, or calamity; intrepidness.
   • […] he came to impart other news; to prepare the Earl for death; for the morrow was appointed for his execution. He received the intelligence with the firm hardihood of indignant virtue, disdaining to solicit, and disdaining to repine […]1789, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 4, in The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne, London: T. Hookham, page 81
2. Excessive boldness; foolish daring; offensive assurance.
   • […] that God should enact a dispensation for hard hearts to do that wherby they must live in priviledg’d adultery, however it go for the receav’d opinion, I shall ever disswade my self from so much hardihood as to beleeve:1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, book I, page 25
3. Of a plant, an ability to withstand extreme conditions, hardiness.
   • The cheapness and hardihood of the musk-plant and marigold, to say nothing of their peculiar odour, has made them the most popular of “roots” […]1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, London: George Woodfall & Son, page 144