harden.
To become hard.
Meaning & usage
To become hard.
To make something hard or harder.
To strengthen.
To modify (a website or other system) to make it resistant to malicious attacks.
To become or make (a person or thing) resistant or less sensitive.
To get an erection.
To become or make (a consonant) more fortis; to (cause to) undergo fortition.
To unpalatalize or velarize.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kret-der.? Proto-Germanic *harduz Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Germanic *-janą Proto-Germanic *hardijaną Proto-West Germanic *hardijan Old English hierdan ▲ Proto-Germanic *harduz Proto-Indo-European *-yos Proto-Indo-European *-yós Proto-Germanic *-jaz Proto-West Germanic *-ī Proto-West Germanic *hard(ī) Proto-Germanic *-āną Proto-West Germanic *-ēn Proto-West Germanic *hardēn Old English heardian Middle English harden Proto-Indo-European *-o- Proto-Indo-European *-nom Proto-Indo-European *-onom Proto-Germanic *-aną ▲ Proto-Germanic *-janą Old English -an Middle English -en Middle English hardenen English harden From Middle English hardenen, equivalent to hard + -en. Cognate with Danish hærdne (“to harden; cure”), Swedish hårdna (“to harden”), Norwegian herdne (“to harden”), Icelandic harðna (“to harden”).
Alternative form of hurden (“coarse linen”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.