hardened
/ˈhɑɹd(ə)nd/ adjective B2- Made physically hard. · hardened steel
- Having been accustomed or desensitized to something unpleasant through exposure or experience; inured. · hardened police officers
- Unfeeling; pitiless; callous. · The bloody scene could reduce even the most hardened soldier to tears.
- Firmly established in a behavior seen as bad; unlikely to change one's ways; inveterate. · hardened criminals
- Having extra defences against attack; highly fortified. · a hardened air base· a hardened server
From the library
“I ought to be more case-hardened after my Afghan experiences.
An expression of irresolution passed for an instant over her face, but her eyes had hardened again when she answered me.
As we ran towards it the vague outline hardened into a definite shape.
Their parties abroad were less varied than before; and at home she had a mother and sister, whose constant repinings at the dulness of everything around them threw a real gloom over their domestic circle; and, though Kitty might in time regain her natural degree of sense, since the disturbers of her brain were removed, her other sister, from whose disposition greater evil might be apprehended, was likely to be hardened in all her folly and assurance, by a situation of such double danger as a watering-place and a camp.
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