Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use harden in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Harden means to become hard. Example: “A roiling flutter within had me harden my gaze at the man I swore to seek revenge on.”

Examples of harden by meaning

verbTo become hard.

  • The Chief Medical Officer of London Transport believes that public opinion against smoking will harden to the point of a total bar on the Underground, as in other countries.1959 May, “Accommodation for Non-Smokers”, in Railway Magazine, pages 295-296

verbTo strengthen.

  • In view of the system's relatively low cost, the preferred alternative could be for the military user to avail himself of multiple base stations rather than seeking to harden the base station hardware for defense applications.2002, Jane's International Defense Review, volume 35
  • Television replays hardened the suspicion it was a calculated move on Ramos’s part and, when Salah landed with a hell of a thud, the damage was considerable.2018 May 26, Daniel Taylor, “Liverpool go through after Mohamed Salah stops Manchester City fightback”, in The Guardian (London)

verbTo get an erection.

  • He hardened as he imagined himself running his hands over her small breasts1999 August 2, Karen Mitchell, “Files from the Feminet BBS NOVAD5.TXT 38.38 KB”, in alt.sex.stories.tg (Usenet)

More sentences with harden

  • A roiling flutter within had me harden my gaze at the man I swore to seek revenge on.From the entry flutter
  • Seeing so much suffering for so long hardened his heart.From the entry harden someone's heart
  • She hardened her heart against his inevitable pleas.From the entry harden someone's heart
  • One of them was a hulking brute of a man, heavily tattooed and with a hardened face that practically screamed "I just got out of jail."From the entry brute
  • After more than a year of war, Ukraine is battle hardened.2023 April 3, Andrew E. Kramer, Mauricio Lima, “New Weapons Aren’t Enough: The Challenges of Ukraine’s Coming Assault”, in The New York…. From the entry battle-hardened
  • Hardened royalists staged a protest against Amnesty International Thailand at Silom Complex on Monday.2021 November 29, Erich Parpart, “Ultra royalists condemn Amnesty International, call for their removal”, in Thai Enquirer, Thai Enquirer…. From the entry hardened
  • The octopodic form had sharp black stings that had hardened inside the length of the four arms.probably 2018, Rogue Planet Press, Lovecraftiana: Halloween 2018, page 33. From the entry octopodic
  • Some programs use drought stress to cause budset and harden the crop in preparation for winter.2011, R. Parish, C. M. Johnson, G. Montgomery, Regenerating British Columbia's Forests, →ISBN, page 232. From the entry budset
  • Once the crab has molted, the new shell takes about four days to harden.2007, Aliza Green, Field Guide to Seafood, →ISBN. From the entry peeler
  • Tepetate is a vernacular Mexican term referring to a hardened land with various degrees of infertility.2006, Rattan Lal, Encyclopedia of Soil Science, volume 2, page 1745. From the entry tepetate
  • The scientific definition reserves the term tepetate for a hardened layer in soils formed from pyroclastic materials.2006, Rattan Lal, Encyclopedia of Soil Science, volume 2, page 1745. From the entry tepetate
  • Unlike starch, the pentosans don't retrograde and harden after being cooked and cooled.2004, Harold McGee, chapter 9, in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, Scribner, →ISBN. From the entry pentosan
  • That lean gentleman had apparently understudied Pharaoh of old and hardened his heart.1935, Owen Conquest, Morny's Master Stroke. From the entry understudy
  • The hatchling sowpigs (Cornwall) that leave the maternal pouch are tiny, soft and pale but soon harden up.2024, Dominic Couzens, Gail Ashton, A Year of Garden Bees and Bugs. From the entry sowpig
  • Even some hardened “hodlers” have been getting cold feet.2022 May 14, “Tech bubbles are bursting all over the place”, in The Economist, →ISSN. From the entry hodler
  • With the bathers, especially, bodies harden into things.2021 June 27, Jason Farago, “The Cézanne We’ve Forgotten How to See”, in The New York Times. From the entry lumpy
  • Rhen blinked once, but once was all it took for his gaze to unglaze and his features to retreat, to harden.2015, Kaitlyn Davis, The Shadow Soul. From the entry unglaze
  • Structures that have been precipitation hardened to peak values may overage, and steels that have been hardened and tempered may overtemper.2013, Mahmoud M. Farag, Materials and Process Selection for Engineering Design, →ISBN. From the entry overage
  • A yak was killed, the leather boiled till soft then fitted to our chests and left to harden in the sun.2009, David Foster, Sons of the Rumour, Picador, page 87. From the entry cuirbouly
  • Although tungsten hot work steels can be air hardened, they are usually quenched in oil or hot salt to minimize scaling.2008, Flake C. Campbell, Elements of Metallurgy and Engineering Alloys, page 420. From the entry hot work
  • Our ships are hardened against chemical and biological weapons.2006, Jeff Edwards, Torpedo, →ISBN, page xiii. From the entry bring a knife to a gunfight
  • I swap a Carlton for a match, and devise a telephone strategy brilliant enough to reduce hardened Tokyo PAs to putty.2001, David Mitchell, number9dream, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN. From the entry bioborg
  • This slurry is thrown hard, or spattered, against the smooth block or concrete surface, and then allowed to harden.1986, John van Winden, Wolfram Pforte, Fritz Hoherlein, Rural Building: Basic Knowledge, volume 2, page 178. From the entry spatterdash
  • But they are also artisans, and it is this trait which captivates the interest of the most hardened araneophobe.1976, Barbara York Main, Spiders (The Australian Naturalist Library), Sydney: William Collins Publishers, →ISBN, page 12. From the entry araneophobe
  • He was a living argument on your side — a mind scaithed and a heart hardened by the curse of slavery.1974, Clare Taylor, British and American abolitionists. From the entry scaith
  • These processes tend to specularize, or harden, the hematite.1938, Lake Superior Iron Ores, page 51. From the entry specularize
  • As soon as this end is cooled the position of the hammer is instantly reversed and the face end hardened.1912 [1908], “Forging”, in Howard Monroe Raymond, editor, Cyclopedia of Mechanical Engineering, American School of Correspondence, page 73…. From the entry hammer face
  • The arrival of a starving mother and daughter (perfectly embodied by Olwen Fouéré and Mia Goth) disrupts the survivalist’s methodical routines and hardened emotions.2017 May 17, Jeannette Catsoulis, “Review: Three Must Become Two in ‘The Survivalist’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry survivalist
  • "What're you in for?" he asked Billy, sounding like a hardened convict enquiring whether Billy had been incarcerated for housebreaking or carjacking.2015, Paul Shaw, Captain Cat and The Umbrella Kid: In Fear Can Be Fatal & The Aunt From The Blood Lagoon, →ISBN. From the entry automysophobia
  • She had had enough whimperings and demandings this morning to last her a week, and her face hardened as a tear rolled down Sarah's cheek.2012, Janet Haslam, Rachel's Daughter. From the entry demanding
  • Couldn't he just as easily load a frangible bullet and a nonfrangible one into his magazine as two frangibles or two regular, hardened rounds?2012, G. Paul Chambers, Head Shot: The Science behind the JFK Assassination, expanded edition, Amherst, N.Y.: Prometheus Books, →ISBN. From the entry frangible
  • To the uninitiated, this behaviour might seem bizarre, but hardened FarmVillers say all of this helps you win extra points and prizes.2010 March 25, Rajini Vaidyanathan, “Down on the FarmVille”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2010. From the entry FarmViller
  • If smaller milling equipment is used for prolonged time, residual material from the void areas may harden and agglomerate into unfriable particles.2009, Jack Zheng, Formulation and Analytical Development for Low-Dose Oral Drug Products. From the entry unfriable
  • The blockade was centered around four college students forming a human chain, their hands encased in containers of hardened cement, the old sleeping dragon trick.2009, Mike Roselle, Josh Mahan, Tree Spiker, page 245. From the entry sleeping dragon
  • The music changes tack and hardens.2008, Helen Walsh, “Part Three: Thelwall, Washington, 1989”, in Once Upon a Time in England, Edinburgh: Canongate Books, →ISBN, chapter 6…. From the entry 'kin' 'ell
  • Carl Davis' score is so very good, it brought this hardened silent filmwatcher to tears, as did the dramatic depth of the film.2003 January 2, Silvered Motion, “Fairbanks dvds”, in alt.movies.silent (Usenet). From the entry filmwatcher

Meaning of harden

  1. verb To become hard.
  2. verb To make something hard or harder.
  3. verb To strengthen.

Full definition of harden

Questions about harden in a sentence

How do you use harden in a sentence?
Harden is used as a verb. For example: “A roiling flutter within had me harden my gaze at the man I swore to seek revenge on.”
What is a short sentence with harden?
“The music changes tack and hardens.”
What does harden mean?
Harden means to become hard.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: harden (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use harden in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/harden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.