different between sustain vs harden

English

Etymology

From Middle English susteinen, sustenen, from Old French sustenir (French soutenir), from Latin sustine?, sustin?re (“to uphold”), from sub- (“from below, up”) + tene? (“hold”, verb).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??ste?n/
• Hyphenation: sus?tain
• Rhymes: -e?n

Verb

sustain (third-person singular simple present sustains, present participle sustaining, simple past and past participle sustained)

1. (transitive) To maintain, or keep in existence.

   The professor had trouble sustaining students’ interest until the end of her lectures.

   The city came under sustained attack by enemy forces.

   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part Two, Chapter 9,^[1]

     All the beliefs, habits, tastes, emotions, mental attitudes that characterize our time are really designed to sustain the mystique of the Party and prevent the true nature of present-day society from being perceived.

2. (transitive) To provide for or nourish.

   provisions to sustain an army

   • 1611, King James Version of the Bible, Nehemiah 9:21,^[2]

     Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.

   • 1937, Robert Byron, The Road to Oxiana, London: Macmillan, Part 2, p. 59,^[3]

     We rode five farsakhs today, sustained by a single bowl of curds and tortured by the wooden saddles.

3. (transitive) To encourage or sanction (something). (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)
4. (transitive) To experience or suffer (an injury, etc.).

   The building sustained major damage in the earthquake.

   • c. 1612, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act III, Scene 2,^[4]

     […] if you omit

     The offer of this time, I cannot promise

     But that you shall sustain moe new disgraces,

     With these you bear already.

   • 1697, John Dryden (translator), The Aeneid, Book 7, lines 592-593, in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 418,^[5]

     Shall Turnus then such endless Toil sustain,

     In fighting Fields, and conquer Towns in vain:

5. (transitive) To confirm, prove, or corroborate; to uphold.

   to sustain a charge, an accusation, or a proposition

   • 1876, Henry Martyn Robert, Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, Chicago: Griggs, 1885, Section 61 (e), p. 167,^[6]

     After the vote is taken, the Chairman states that the decision of the Chair is sustained, or reversed, as the case may be.

6. To keep from falling; to bear; to uphold; to support.

   A foundation sustains the superstructure; an animal sustains a load; a rope sustains a weight.

7. To aid, comfort, or relieve; to vindicate.
   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act III, Scene 3,^[7]

     When I desir’d their leave that I might pity him, they took from me the use of mine own house, charg’d me on pain of perpetual displeasure neither to speak of him, entreat for him, nor any way sustain him.

   • 1697, John Dryden (translator), The Aeneid, Book 6, lines 1122-1123, in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 395,^[8]

     His Sons, who seek the Tyrant to sustain,

     And long for Arbitrary Lords again,

Derived terms

• sustainable
• sustainedly
• sustaining

Related terms

Translations

Noun

sustain (plural sustains)

1. (music) A mechanism which can be used to hold a note, as the right pedal on a piano.
   • 2011, Chuck Eddy, Rock and Roll Always Forgets (page 265)

     To call this music bland is to ignore the down-the-drain vocal fade-aways, the extended sax sustains […]

Anagrams

• issuant

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