Word.ws English Dictionary

toughen

/ˈtʌfən/

toughen verb: to make tough.

Verb

toughen (third-person singular simple present toughens, present participle toughening, simple past and past participle toughened)

  1. (transitive) To make tough.
    • The new training program is designed to toughen the athletes.
    • A cold shower every morning will toughen your skin.
  2. (intransitive) To become tough.

toughen meaning in Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

toughen in Urdu

سخت بنانا

toughen in Bengali

শক্ত করা, শক্ত হওয়া

toughen in Malayalam

കഠിനമാകുക, കട്ടിയാകുക, ഉറപ്പുവരുത്തുക, ദൃഢമാകുക

Examples of toughen in a sentence

  • Hit the gym if you want to toughen up your game.
  • Nanoscale toughening mechanisms are also identified using high load nanoindentation and in-situ TEM picoindentation..
  • Rafferty said it was good practice & it would toughen you up so you didn't feel pandies.

All 11 example sentences with toughen

Forms of toughen

third-person singular presenttoughens
present participletoughening
past participletoughened
pasttoughened

Past tense of toughen: toughened

Origin of toughen

From tough + -en.

Words formed from toughen

Words that rhyme with toughen

Questions about toughen

What does toughen mean?
Toughen means to make tough.
What is toughen in Urdu?
Toughen in Urdu is سخت بنانا. See Toughen meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is toughen?
Toughen is a verb.
How do you pronounce toughen?
Toughen is pronounced /ˈtʌfən/.
What is the past tense of toughen?
The past tense of toughen is toughened.

Words near toughen in the dictionary

  1. tough-pitch
  2. tough-skinned
  3. toughed
  4. toughed it out
  5. toughed out
  6. toughen
  7. toughen up
  8. toughenable
  9. toughened
  10. toughened up
  11. toughener

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: toughen (page history and authors); toughen (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); toughen (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); toughen (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-toughen.wav.

Cite this entry: “toughen.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/toughen. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.