toughen

«toughen» in Mova's school dictionary: to make it stronger and harder to break or damage — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (toughen, toughens, toughened, toughening)

meaning for a pupil

1) To toughen something is to make it stronger and harder to break or damage. tree →

2) To toughen (up) a person is to make them stronger and better at dealing with difficult things. tree →

3) To make rules or laws stricter. tree →

sense in the lessons

Used in science and technology: toughened glass is heated and cooled so it is stronger and breaks into small, safer pieces. In everyday life: "toughen up" (sometimes said unkindly). In news: the government toughened the rules.

examples

• Toughened glass is used in car windows. tree →
• The hard training toughened the players. tree →
• Hiking toughens your feet. tree →
• The school toughened its rules on phones. tree →
• Toughened glass breaks into small pieces, not sharp shards. tree →
• Boots get toughened by wearing them. tree →

note

Regular verb: toughened. From "tough" + -en (to make). Pronounced "TUFF-en". "Toughen up" can sound unkind if said to someone who is upset.

In the corpora

• Phone screens are toughened glass, treated so the surface is harder; a drop on a corner can still crack them.
• Car side windows are toughened glass that breaks into small blunt pieces.

Trees and pragmatics

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