different between harden vs obdurate

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?h??dn?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?h??dn?/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d?n
• Hyphenation: hard?en

Etymology 1

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”).

Verb

harden (third-person singular simple present hardens, present participle hardening, simple past and past participle hardened)

1. (intransitive) To become hard (tough, resistant to pressure).
2. (transitive, ergative) To make something hard or harder (tough, resistant to pressure).
3. (transitive, figuratively) To strengthen.
   • 2002, Jane's International Defense Review (volume 35)

     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.
4. (transitive, computing) To modify (a website or other system) to make it resistant to malicious attacks.
5. (transitive, intransitive, dated) To become or make (a person or thing) resistant or less sensitive.

   Synonym: inure

   • KJV, Exodus 4:21

     When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

6. (transitive, intransitive, phonology) To become or make (a consonant) more fortis.

Derived terms

• forharden
• hardened
• hardener
• hardening
• harden off
• harden someone's heart
• harden up
• overharden

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

harden (countable and uncountable, plural hardens)

1. Alternative form of hurden (“coarse linen”)

Anagrams

• Harned, Hendra, hander

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?rd?n

Verb

harden

1. (transitive) To render hard(er), more resistant etc.; to temper metal; to steel nerves

   De geharde veteranen verbeten de pijn zonder jammeren.

   The hardened veterans bore the pain without whining.

2. (transitive) to endure, bear, stand, tolerate

Inflection

Synonyms

• (to endure) uithouden, verdragen

Noun

harden

1. Plural form of harde

English

Etymology

Mid-15th century, from Latin obduratus (“hardened”), form of obd?r? (“harden”), from ob- (“against”) + d?r? (“harden, render hard”), from durus (“hard”). Compare durable, endure.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??bd????t/, /??bdj???t/, /??bd????t/, /-?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??bd(j)???t/, /??bd(j)???t/, /-?t/
• Sometimes accented on the second syllable, especially by the older poets.

Adjective

obdurate (comparative more obdurate, superlative most obdurate)

1. Stubbornly persistent, generally in wrongdoing; refusing to reform or repent.
   • 1593, Richard Hooker, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book I:

     ... sometimes the very custom of evil making the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary ...

   • 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 3, Act I, sc. 4:

     Art thou obdurate, flinty, hard as steel,

     Nay, more than flint, for stone at rain relenteth?

   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 56–8

     ... round he throws his baleful eyes

     That witness'd huge affliction and dismay

     Mixt with obdurate pride and stedfast hate:

   • 1818, Percy Bysshe Shelley,"The Revolt of Islam", canto 4, stanza 9, lines 1486-7:

     But custom maketh blind and obdurate

     The loftiest hearts.
2. (obsolete) Physically hardened, toughened.
3. Hardened against feeling; hard-hearted.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 13:

     I fear the gentleman to whom Miss Amelia's letters were addressed was rather an obdurate critic.

Synonyms

• (stubbornly persistent in wrongdoing): hardened, hard-hearted, impertinent, intractable, unrepentant, unyielding, recalcitrant

Derived terms

• obduracy

Related terms

• durable, duration
• endure, endurance, enduring

Translations

Verb

obdurate (third-person singular simple present obdurates, present participle obdurating, simple past and past participle obdurated)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To harden; to obdure.

References

Anagrams

• taboured

Latin

Verb

obd?r?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of obd?r?