MEANING
1. To harden the surface layer of a material, especially steel, while retaining a comparatively softer interior.
2. To make someone hardened or less responsive to feeling or moral pressure.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- case-harden steel
- a case-hardened gear
On the page
The case-hardened gear survived surface wear better than the untreated replacement.
The engineer explained why the part had been case-hardened rather than hardened throughout.
Nearby words
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- case-harden
- Past tense
- case-hardened
- Past participle
- case-hardened
- Present participle
- case-hardening
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- case-harden
- Present continuous
- am/is/are case-hardening
- Present perfect
- have/has case-hardened
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been case-hardening
- Past
- case-hardened
- Past continuous
- was/were case-hardening
- Past perfect
- had case-hardened
- Past perfect continuous
- had been case-hardening
- Future
- will case-harden
- Future continuous
- will be case-hardening
- Future perfect
- will have case-hardened
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been case-hardening
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: case-harden; case-hardens; case-hardened; case-hardened; case-hardening Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Third-person singular: case-hardens.
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