firming (up)

verb

Definition of firming (up)next
present participle of firm (up)
as in freezing
to become physically firm or solid wait for the modeling clay to firm up before handling the finished pot

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for firming (up)
  1. freezing
  2. hardening
  3. stiffening
Verb
  • And when mean girls at school like Nikki Glazer’s Priscilla start freezing them out, Cinderella doesn’t do enough to stand up for them.
    — Christian Zilko, IndieWire, 10 Nov. 2026
  • Saturday looks chilly with highs in the mid 40s, with breezy conditions keeping feels-like temperatures near freezing all day.
    — Grant Gilmore, CBS News, 10 Nov. 2026
Definition of freezing
Verb
  • Matt Pender is the vice president of undergrounding and system hardening for PG&E.
    — Brady Halbleib, CBS News, 7 Nov. 2026
  • The October run identified 948, more than five times as many, despite three months of additional kernel hardening.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 5 Nov. 2026
Definition of hardening
Verb
  • Proposition 132 attempts to address these concerns by stiffening legal penalties.
    — Joshua Barocas, The Conversation, 16 Oct. 2026
  • But one of the positives Glenn highlighted was the defense stiffening in the red zone against Chicago, which went 2 of 7 inside the New York 20-yard line.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of stiffening
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

firmed (up)
firming (up)
firmly
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Firming (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/firming%20%28up%29. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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