Dictionary

hardiness en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle English hardynesse; equivalent to hardy + -ness.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The quality of being hardy. ▸ The quality of being able to withstand fatigue and hardship; (of a plant) the quality of being resistant to cold or other environmental conditions.
   • Wild wheat is small and hard, quite capable of looking after itself, but its heads contain only a few small kernels. Cultivated wheat has lost its hardiness and its self-reliance, but its heads are filled with large kernels which feed the nation. 1915, Nellie McClung, chapter 4, in In Times Like These, Toronto: McLeod & Allen:
   • Kale is known for its winter-hardiness.
   • But the Houynhnhnms train up their Youth to Strength, Speed, and Hardineſs, by exerciſing them in running Races up and down ſteep Hills, and over hard and ſtony Grounds […] 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Relates Several Particulars of the Yahoos. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 284:
   • […] with usefull and generous labours preserving the bodies health, and hardinesse; to render lightsome, cleare, and not lumpish obedience to the minde, 1642, John Milton, An apology against a pamphlet call’d A modest confutation of the animadversions upon the remonstrant against Smectymnuus, London: John Rothwell, page 13:
2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) The quality of being hardy. ▸ The quality of being bold in the face of risk or authority.
   • […] they who were not yet grown to the hardineſs of Avowing the contempt of the King […] would ſooner have been checked, and recovered their Loyalty and Obedience. 1702, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, book V, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], volume I, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater, page 465:
   • […] for every sorrow that his heart turned from, he lost a consolation; for every fear which he dared not confront, he lost a portion of his hardiness; the unsceptred sweep of the storm-clouds, the fair freedom of glancing shower and flickering sunbeam, sank into sweet rectitudes and decent formalisms; 1856, John Ruskin, chapter 6, in Modern Painters […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, , § 6:
   • Plentie, and Peace breeds Cowards: Hardneſſe euer / Of Hardineſſe is Mother. 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi], page 385, column 2:
3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) Hardship; fatigue.
   • Yet ſure they are very valiant, and hardy, for the moſt part great Indurers of Cold, Labour, Hunger, and all Hardineſs […] 1596 (date written; published 1633), Edmund Spenser, A Vewe of the Present State of Irelande […], Dublin: […] Societie of Stationers, […], →OCLC; republished as “A View of the State of Ireland”, in The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser, volume VI, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], 1715, →OCLC, page 1577:

Forms

Relateds

hardness · foolhardiness · heartiness

Synonyms

assurance · firmness · boldness · hardihood · audacity

Translations (4)

pdt Hoatlichkjeit (the quality of being hardy) · pl wytrwałość (the quality of being hardy) · pl odporność (the quality of being hardy) · pl wytrzymałość (the quality of being hardy)