hardened

1 able to withstand hardship, strain, or exposure hardened from years of deprivation and grief, the man regarded the house fire as just another misfortune in a life filled with them Synonyms cast-iron, hard, hard-bitten, hardy, inured, rugged, stout, strong, sturdy, tough, toughened, vigorousRelated Words flinty, leathery, resilient, stalwart; durable, enduring, everlasting, immortal, imperishable, lasting, permanent, stable, staunch (also stanch), staying, tenacious, unyielding; flourishing, prospering, thriving; able-bodied, brawny, muscular; fit, fortified, hale, healthy, husky, lusty, red-blooded, robust, sound, strapping, virile; annealed, seasoned, temperedNear Antonyms emasculated, enervated, enfeebled, exhausted, run-down, sapped, wasted, weakened, worn, worn out; crippled, debilitated, diseased, incapacitated, infirm, unsound; fragile, frail, puny; resistless, sensitive, susceptible, unresistant, vulnerable, yielding; mortal, perishable, temporary, transientAntonyms delicate, nonhardy, soft, tender, weak

2 sticking to an opinion, purpose, or course of action in spite of reason, arguments, or persuasion hardened cynics regarded those TV shows as being anything but reality-based Synonyms adamant, adamantine, bullheaded, dogged, hard, obstinate, hardheaded, hard-nosed, headstrong, immovable, implacable, inconvincible, inflexible, intransigent, mulish, obdurate, opinionated, ossified, pat, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, self-opinionated, self-willed, stiff-necked, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, willful (or wilful)Related Words anal-retentive, obsessive; wayward, wrongheaded; determined, hell-bent, inexorable, persistent, relentless, resolved, set, single-minded, steadfast, stouthearted, tenacious, unflinching; firm, hard-line, hard-shell (or hard-shelled), iron, severe, stern, strict; hidebound, narrow-minded, rigid; bloody-minded [chiefly British], cantankerous; contrary, cussed; contumacious, disobedient, froward, insubordinate, intractable, recalcitrant, refractory, uncooperative, ungovernable, unmanageable, unruly; defiant, insurgent, mutinous; indomitable, invincible, unconquerable; confirmed, inveterate, unregenerate; demanding, exactingNear Antonyms docile, obedient, placable, submissive, tractable; accepting, persuadable, receptive, responsive, willing; governable, manageable, reasonable, temperate; slavish, subservientAntonyms acquiescent, agreeable, amenable, compliant, complying, flexible, pliable, pliant, relenting, yielding