as in ruthless
having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings
an indurate heart that admits no love or mercy
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in to freeze
to become physically firm or solid
clay that had been indurated by long exposure to the summer sun
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to strengthen
to make able to withstand physical hardship, strain, or exposure
such a brutal upbringing could only callous his soul and indurate his heart to the suffering of others
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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.
Recent Examples of indurate
Scott Bradfield, The New Republic, 24 Jan. 2023
Adjective
His characters strive to achieve things—such as love, self-command, or financial success—but those efforts are made ironic in the face of a world that, while sometimes beautiful to look at, remains indurate to human happiness.
—Scott Bradfield, The New Republic, 24 Jan. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for indurate
Adjective
-
Lydia, naturally, has her own reasons for pairing Agnes and Daisy together, evolving from a ruthless zealot and disciplinarian in Handmaid’s Tale into a kind of double agent looking to overthrow Gilead from within the hallowed halls of power in Testaments, as the finale set her up to do.—
Max Gao,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Mar. 2026
-
After enduring a tough patch in business, fate changes his course, turning him into El Serpiente, a ruthless political strategist.—
Anna Marie de la Fuente,
Variety,
3 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Pirovano was among the few racers to top 130 kph (81 mph) on a sunny, still and freezing day that was ideal for the marquee speed discipline.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
6 Mar. 2026
-
If anything, the multi-front conflict looked set to intensify, with Emirati officials reportedly mulling freezing billions of dollars worth of Iranian assets.—
Prashant Rao,
semafor.com,
6 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
This serum purportedly counteracts that, working to de-age the scalp, thus thickening and strengthening strands.—
Tamim Alnuweiri,
InStyle,
6 Mar. 2026
-
The first step replenishes skin’s water levels, and the second protects it—a combination that improves elasticity, calms inflammation, and strengthens barrier integrity.—
Conçetta Ciarlo,
Vogue,
6 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
With a 15 percent slope and soils consisting of shattered rock and very stony loam with a small percentage of clay, the soil is low in organic matter and drains extremely well.—
Mike DeSimone,
Robb Report,
22 Feb. 2026
-
The sculptor, David Adickes, was an Army veteran who'd wanted his stony visages to gleam.—
Danielle Paquette The Washington Post,
Arkansas Online,
17 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
The lunar sea Mare Crisium (the Sea of Crisis) is just visible as a dark circular feature at the top of the sunlit lunar disk, where lava flooded a network of impact craters over a billion years ago, before hardening into a vast basaltic plain.—
Anthony Wood,
Space.com,
4 Mar. 2026
-
And on those higher ozone days, there were more hemorrhage (bleeding, as opposed to clotting) strokes and more plaque buildup causing major arteries to harden.—
Theresa Gaffney,
STAT,
4 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Waltz lends a slimy charisma to the merciless SS colonel, who gets a satisfying comeuppance via carving knife.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
4 Mar. 2026
-
These are two of the most conniving, merciless people on television, and they’re bonded by the twin desire to be more like the other.—
Amanda Whiting,
Vulture,
23 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
After the deputies put him back into the chair, Mitchell’s body stiffened, with his legs straight in front of him and his head lolling back.—
USA Today,
USA Today,
8 Mar. 2026
-
Leaving them out for too long can cause the fibers to stiffen.—
Ashlyn Needham,
Southern Living,
7 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Official statistics are hard to come by, but town residents — several of whom asked to be identified by only first names to protect their safety — estimated around 80 cars were set aflame in a municipality of just 20,000 people.—
Senior Editor,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Mar. 2026
-
In the absence of hard data, the kind that become available years or decades after a war, the temptation is to reach for analogies or proverbial wisdom, or any of the other heuristic shortcuts that the psychologist Daniel Kahneman thoroughly described in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow.—
Eliot A. Cohen,
The Atlantic,
6 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Indurate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/indurate. Accessed 10 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
