HARDENING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does hardening mean? 

• HARDENING (noun)
  The noun HARDENING has 3 senses:

1. abnormal hardening or thickening of tissue

2. the process of becoming hard or solid by cooling or drying or crystallization

3. the act of making something harder (firmer or tighter or more compact)

  Familiarity information: HARDENING used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HARDENING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Abnormal hardening or thickening of tissue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("hardening" is a kind of...):

symptom ((medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hardening"):

callosity; callus (an area of skin that is thick or hard from continual pressure or friction (as the sole of the foot))

calcification (tissue hardened by deposition of lime salts)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The process of becoming hard or solid by cooling or drying or crystallization

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Synonyms:

curing; hardening; set; solidification; solidifying

Context example:

he tested the set of the glue

Hypernyms ("hardening" is a kind of...):

action; activity; natural action; natural process (a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hardening"):

congealment; congelation (the process of congealing; solidification by (or as if by) freezing)

Holonyms ("hardening" is a part of...):

plastination (a process involving fixation and dehydration and forced impregnation and hardening of biological tissues; water and lipids are replaced by curable polymers (silicone or epoxy or polyester) that are subsequently hardened)

Derivation:

harden (become hard or harder)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of making something harder (firmer or tighter or more compact)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("hardening" is a kind of...):

change of integrity (the act of changing the unity or wholeness of something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "hardening"):

annealing; tempering (hardening something by heat treatment)

Derivation:

harden (make hard or harder)

 Context examples 

Detailed experiments with these showed that the antibiotic minocycline was highly effective in preventing hardening of the arteries.

(Cause of hardening of the arteries – and potential treatment – identified, University of Cambridge)

The quality of being hard, the process of hardening, or an abnormally hard spot or place, particularly of the skin.

(Induration, NCI Thesaurus)

A vascular disorder characterized by thickening and hardening of the walls of the arteries.

(Arteriosclerosis, NCI Thesaurus)

A question about the difference in an individual's breast texture or hardening between the treated and untreated breast since treatment for breast cancer.

(Breast Texture Difference Since Cancer Treatment, NCI Thesaurus)

A chronic disorder, possibly autoimmune, marked by excessive production of collagen which results in hardening and thickening of body tissues.

(Localized Scleroderma, NCI Thesaurus)

Thickening and hardening of the skin associated with chronic inflammation or irritation.

(Lichenification, NCI Thesaurus)

Already we were in her dust, so that we could see nothing but the dim scarlet blur in the heart of it, rocking and rolling, with its outline hardening at every stride.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Arterial stiffness, sometimes called hardening of the arteries, is a known risk factor for heart attack and stroke in adults.

(Too Much Salt? Unhealthy Blood Vessels Changes, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Patients may be shorter than average, and have health problems such as loss and graying of hair, hardening of the arteries, thinning of the bones, diabetes, and thin, hardened skin.

(Adult progeria, NCI Dictionary)

It is cold, cold; so cold that the grey heavy sky is full of snow, which when it falls will settle for all winter as the ground is hardening to receive it.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)