harden

«harden» in Mova's school dictionary: To become hard or firm, or to make something hard — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (harden, hardens, hardened, hardening)

meaning for a pupil

1) To become hard or firm, or to make something hard. tree →

2) Of a person or feelings: to become less kind or less soft, or more determined. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science it describes changes of state and materials: chocolate, wax, clay, concrete or glue harden as they cool or dry. In stories a face or voice «hardens» when someone becomes stern or angry. Phrase: «harden your heart».

examples

• The melted chocolate will harden in the fridge. tree →
• Leave the clay to harden overnight. tree →
• Concrete takes days to harden fully. tree →
• Wax hardens as it cools. tree →
• His face hardened when he heard the bad news. tree →
• The glue hardened and stuck the pieces together. tree →
• Bread hardens if you leave it out. tree →
• Inge heard all this, and her heart became hardened and full of bitterness. tree →

note

Regular verb: hardened. The «-en» ending means «to make or become»: hard → harden, soft → soften, dark → darken. Hardening when cooling is a reversible change for chocolate and wax, but not for concrete or baked clay.

In the corpora

• When you cut yourself, platelets and stringy fibres make a net that plugs the cut and hardens into a scab.
• Igneous rocks form when molten rock cools and hardens.
• And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.
• And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken.
• (8-28) And Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «harden» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.