How to Use toughen in a Sentence

toughen

verb
Definition of toughennext
Synonyms for toughennext
  • His skin toughened against the acidic pulp that the plant spat when cleaved.
    — Tucker Harris, Washington Post, 23 Jan. 2024
  • When the genre toughened up, there wasn’t room for him.
    — Chris Willman, Variety, 10 Oct. 2023
  • Sometimes the shrimp at the edges of the pan had curled and toughened by the time the ones in the middle cooked through.
    — Melissa Clark, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 June 2024
  • As the lawsuits wended through the courts, the state was moving to toughen the law.
    — Maya Miller, ProPublica, 26 Oct. 2020
  • The young Americans will have to toughen up and get through it.
    — Ann Killion, San Francisco Chronicle, 30 Aug. 2021
  • Lug-sole Chelsea boots from Ganni will toughen up the look.
    — Laura Jackson, Vogue, 16 Jan. 2023
  • The changes would also toughen oversight for a wider group of large banks.
    — Rob Copeland, New York Times, 10 July 2023
  • As the garlic matures, the green stalks will toughen like a leek, in which case the stalks should be omitted.
    — Lynda Balslev, The Mercury News, 1 Apr. 2024
  • For decades, they were told to shake it off or toughen up — to set aside the doubt, or the demons, and focus on the task at hand: winning.
    — Jenna Fryer, Chron, 28 July 2021
  • The slanted bob was styled to look a little wet and lived-in, giving the sweet color a bit of edge to toughen it up.
    — Kara Nesvig, Allure, 21 July 2022
  • Wait about two weeks after a freeze so that the skin on the tubers can toughen, says Benzakein.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Country Living, 9 Mar. 2021
  • Your daughter had to toughen up to stand up to her brother, and now your youngest son is taking the brunt of the aggression.
    — Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2022
  • In the Adriatic Sea, the arm of the Mediterranean just east of the Italian peninsula, the floating mucus can dry and toughen in the sun.
    — Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic, 21 June 2021
  • Hard water can toughen the skins of them, and age can affect cook time by as much as an hour and a half, hence the 40 minutes to 2.5-hour range in cook time.
    — Southern Living Test Kitchen, Southern Living, 10 Apr. 2024
  • Leaf’s Bolts did what San Diego’s perfect weather could not do, toughening up the young guy for the football life to come.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Sep. 2023
  • At that time, lawmakers were looking to toughen the penalties for gun crime.
    — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 8 Feb. 2023
  • And there seems to be a franchise-wide refusal to toughen up, as has been evidenced by poor special teams play for the last decade.
    — Nick Canepa Columnist, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Nov. 2021
  • But with Allen’s contract taking a bigger bite out of the team’s payroll, the road figures to only toughen.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Jan. 2024
  • Her soulful stylings and outrageous rock-outs would toughen me up.
    — Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 25 May 2023
  • One of the bill’s last sticking points was a provision to toughen federal law to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers.
    — Emily Cochrane, BostonGlobe.com, 23 June 2022
  • In the same, Holly vowed to toughen up so the more emotional moments don’t get the best of their relationship.
    — Kelly Wynne, Peoplemag, 19 Dec. 2023
  • The price for credits spiked this year after the number of permits was reduced to toughen emissions rules.
    — Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Oct. 2021
  • Doctors either use lasers to scar and toughen the tissue in the soft palate or insert plastic pillars within the palate that heal over.
    — Paul Kita, Men's Health, 15 Dec. 2022
  • Tobias Harris picked a pair of Philadelphia's deep reserves to knock him around and toughen his game on the low post.
    — Dan Gelston, ajc, 23 May 2021
  • Fearful patients will get help, not comments to toughen up.
    — Editorial Board, Star Tribune, 10 Apr. 2021
  • Baking soda raises the pH of the meat, which prevents the proteins from bonding and tightening up (which can toughen the meat).
    — Robin Miller, The Arizona Republic, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The key to tender, pillowy gnocchi is using a light touch and adding just enough flour to get the dough to a workable consistency (any more will toughen the dumplings).
    — Tina Martinez, Good Housekeeping, 8 Aug. 2023
  • These attacks, if anything, appear to have toughened him.
    — Roger Cohen, New York Times, 23 Feb. 2024
  • The ruling clears the way for cities to resume enforcing laws idled by the 9th Circuit or to toughen laws that were watered down in an effort to comply with it.
    — David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2024
  • There’s a series of bills at the Legislature that would toughen up penalties for threatening and intimidating election workers, including the doxxing of them — posting their home addresses and phone numbers, for instance.
    — Abe Kwok, The Arizona Republic, 15 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'toughen.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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