harden
/ˈhɑːdn/ (bre, ipa) · [hˈɑrdən] /ˈhɑːrdn/ (ame, ipa) · [hˈɑrdən] /ˈhär-dᵊn/ (ame, mw)
harden — 動詞
- hardenpresent simple I / you / we / they
- hardenshe / she / it
- hardenedpast simple
- hardening-ing form
1. When a soft or liquid substance hardens, or when something hardens it, it become
變硬；凝固
物質變得堅硬或固態
When a soft or liquid substance hardens, or when something hardens it, it becomes firm, solid, or stiff — for example, cement setting, wax cooling, or glue drying.
The cement will harden within a few hours, so you need to shape it quickly.
水泥會在幾小時內變硬，所以你必須趕快塑形。
intransitive: material + harden + time phrase
Cold temperatures harden the ground, making it difficult to dig in winter.
低溫會使地面凍硬，冬天很難挖掘。
Asher poured the hot wax and waited for it to harden into a smooth white shape.
Asher 倒出熱蠟，等待它凝固成光滑的白色形狀。
The glue takes about an hour to harden fully, so hold the pieces in place.
膠水大約需要一小時才能完全變硬，所以要把碎片壓緊。
文法句型
material + harden
agent + harden + material
harden + into + form
用法筆記
This sense describes a physical change in materials. The intransitive use ('The concrete hardened') is very common; the transitive use ('The cold hardened the ground') usually names a natural force or process as the agent.
常見錯誤
2. When someone's attitude, opinion, voice, or facial expression hardens — or when
強硬；堅定
態度變得堅決或嚴厲
When someone's attitude, opinion, voice, or facial expression hardens — or when something causes this change — that person's feelings grow more severe, less flexible, and less open to compromise. For instance, a politician hardening a stance after public pressure.
The mayor hardened her stance on traffic fines after several serious accidents.
市長在發生幾起重大事故後，強化了對交通罰款的立場。
collocation: harden stance/position/attitude
Hamza's voice hardened when he described the unfair treatment his team received.
Hamza 在描述他所屬團隊受到的不公平待遇時，語氣變得強硬起來。
Public opinion has hardened against the proposed tax increase over the past year.
民眾反對增稅提案的立場在過去一年間變得更加堅定。
The company hardened its position and refused to negotiate with the striking workers.
公司採取強硬立場，拒絕與罷工工人進行協商。
- stiffen
emphasises a sudden, visible change in posture or attitude
- toughen
implies making demands or rules stricter
- strengthen
broader; can apply to resolve, belief, or conviction
文法句型
opinion/attitude + harden
harden + possessive + stance/position
opinion + harden + against
用法筆記
Subject is often 'attitude', 'position', 'stance', 'voice', 'face', or 'expression'. Common in political, business, and interpersonal conflict contexts. The intransitive pattern with 'against' ('opinion hardens against') is typical in journalism.
常見錯誤
3. To make someone emotionally less sensitive, less easily shocked, or better able
使麻木；磨鍊
使人對困苦不再敏感
To make someone emotionally less sensitive, less easily shocked, or better able to cope with difficult, dangerous, or unpleasant conditions — for example, a nurse becoming hardened to blood after years of work, or soldiers hardened by harsh training.
Years of working in a busy emergency room had hardened the nurses to blood and injury.
在繁忙的急診室工作多年，讓護士們對鮮血與傷勢早已麻木。
passive: be hardened to [something]
The soldiers were hardened by six months of training in freezing mountain conditions.
經過六個月在冰凍山區的訓練，這些士兵變得更加堅韌。
passive: be hardened by [experience]
Rania worried that living alone in a rough neighbourhood would harden her younger brother too quickly.
Rania 擔心獨自在治安不好的社區生活，會讓她弟弟太快變得冷漠。
Joaquín had seen enough poverty on the streets to harden him to the sight of people sleeping on benches.
Joaquín 在街頭看過太多貧窮景象，早已對人們睡在長椅上的畫面感到麻木。
- toughen
more active sense of building strength, not just numbness
- desensitise
formal, focuses on loss of sensitivity, often negative
- inure
very formal, rarely used in everyday speech
文法句型
be hardened to [something]
be hardened by [experience]
experience + hardens + person
用法筆記
Frequently used in the passive voice ('be hardened by/to'). The object is usually a person or group. The variant 'be hardened to' carries the nuance of becoming indifferent or numb; 'be hardened by' emphasises the cause.
常見錯誤
harden — 名詞
1. Maximilian Harden (1861–1927, born Felix Ernst Witkowski), a German writer and l
哈登；作家
德國作家兼評論家
Maximilian Harden (1861–1927, born Felix Ernst Witkowski), a German writer and literary critic best known for his political journalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Many scholars study Maximilian Harden's political writings from the Wilhelmine period in Germany.
許多學者研究 Maximilian Harden 在威廉時期德國的政治著作。
surname used in historical/academic context
Harden's newspaper 'Die Zukunft' shaped public debate in early 20th-century Germany.
Harden 創辦的《未來報》形塑了二十世紀初德國的公共辯論。
The biography explores how Harden influenced German cultural criticism before the First World War.
這本傳記探討了 Harden 如何影響第一次世界大戰前的德國文化評論。
Historians often cite Harden's articles on European diplomacy during the Bismarck era.
歷史學家經常引用 Harden 關於俾斯麥時代歐洲外交的文章。
2. Sir Arthur Harden (1865–1940), an English biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in
哈登；化學
英國生物化學家
Sir Arthur Harden (1865–1940), an English biochemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1929 for his work on the fermentation of sugar and the role of enzymes.
Sir Arthur Harden shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research on sugar fermentation.
Sir Arthur Harden 因糖發酵研究而獲得諾貝爾化學獎。
surname used in scientific/biographical context
Harden's experiments revealed the role of phosphate compounds in yeast metabolism.
Harden 的實驗揭示了磷酸化合物在酵母代謝中的作用。
The laboratory at the Lister Institute was where Harden made his key discoveries about enzymes.
Lister 研究所的實驗室是 Harden 發現酶相關關鍵成果的地方。
Biochemistry students still study Harden's work on co-enzymes and fermentation pathways.
生物化學系的學生仍研讀 Harden 關於輔酶與發酵途徑的研究。