| 释义 |
toughen, v.|ˈtʌf(ə)n|
[f. tough a. + -en5.]
1. trans. To make tough.
1582Stanyhurst æneis iii. (Arb.) 76 O my son æneas, with Troian destenye toughned. 1703T. N. City & C. Purchaser 213 To toughen his Nails that were brittle. 1739G. Smith Laboratory (1799) I. ii. 69 heading, Method of testing, refining, separating, allaying, and toughening [gold and silver]. 1901F. W. Maitland Rede Lect. 27 Any scheme better suited to harden and toughen a traditional body of law. 1906Mem. Abp. Temple I. 471 The experience of life had toughened the fibre of thought.
2. intr. To become tough.
1707Mortimer Husb. (1721) I. 185 Lay them in some Room three or four Weeks or more, that they may cool, give and toughen. 1801Southey Thalaba ix. xxx, Ere the green beauty of their brittle youth Grows brown, and toughens in the summer sun.
Hence toughened |ˈtʌf(ə)nd| ppl. a., toughening |ˈtʌf(ə)nɪŋ| vbl. n. and ppl. a.; toughener |ˈtʌf(ə)nə(r)|, one who or that which toughens.
1876Encycl. Brit. V. 754/2 *Toughened glass invented. 1894Chicago Advance 25 Oct. 118/1 [They] went away..with a toughened propensity to be bad.
1895C. W. Lyman in Voice (N.Y.) 5 Dec. 7/2 Recommended as a *toughener of the constitution.
1868Joynson Metals 45 The *toughening of cast-iron. 1869E. J. Reed Shipbuild. xxi. 317 The toughening effect produced on a mass of Steel when it is heated, and plunged into a bath of oil. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Toughening, refining, as of copper or gold. |