case-hardened 1 of 2

adjective

as in ruthless
having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings a case-hardened homicide detective who has seen it all

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

case-hardened

2 of 2

verb

past tense of case-harden
as in tempered

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Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for case-hardened
  1. ruthless
  2. crystallized
  3. merciless
  4. petrified
  5. stony
Adjective
  • Neill was magnetic as the ruthless CI Major Chester Campbell in Peaky Blinders—an antagonist and romantic rival of Cillian Murphy’s Tommy Shelby.
    — ArsTechnica, ArsTechnica, 15 July 2026
  • Ballon d’Or winner Ousmane Dembélé and Michael Olise, who has a tournament-high five assists, were also kept quiet by the ruthless Spaniards.
    — Mark Hodge, NBC news, 15 July 2026
Definition of ruthless
Verb
  • According to interviews with Hooper, the concept for the film crystallized for him after a Christmastime visit to a Montgomery Ward department store.
    — Jordana Rosenfeld, Encyclopedia Britannica, 10 July 2026
  • The previous night’s service, in which the entire kitchen pulls together under Sydney’s leadership, crystallized his need to move on.
    — Jake Kring-Schreifels, Time, 26 June 2026
Definition of crystallized
Adjective
  • The poem that precedes it, the Iliad, is a cruel and beautiful work, the ultimate story of war; the Odyssey has its warlike passages, but its central energies seem almost commonplace beside the merciless fury of Achilles.
    — David Denby, New Yorker, 21 June 2026
  • Humility is the posture; the standard is merciless.
    — Luis E. Romero, Forbes.com, 19 June 2026
Definition of merciless
Verb
  • The first film follows a group of French high-school students who travel to Naples on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius.
    — Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 20 May 2026
  • Johansson plays her with a tough edge to match her Queens accent, but Hester is clearly petrified by this perfect storm of ugly events.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 16 May 2026
Definition of petrified
Adjective
  • Oscar Wilde, for example, reposes beneath a hulking deity whose iconoclastic castration, back in 1961, did little to restrain pilgrims seeking to smear red lips across his stony physique.
    — Emily Cox, ARTnews.com, 22 May 2026
  • Instead of looking like a sleek urban loft, the room can quickly start to feel cold, stony, and impersonal.
    — Natasha Bazika, Martha Stewart, 9 May 2026
Definition of stony
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

case-harden
case-hardened
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Cite this Entry

“Case-hardened.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/case-hardened. Accessed 18 Jul. 2026.

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