Hardness

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Hardness \Hard"ness\, n. [AS. heardness.]
     1. The quality or state of being hard, literally or
        figuratively.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The habit of authority also had given his manners


              some peremptory hardness.             --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Min.) The cohesion of the particles on the surface of a
        body, determined by its capacity to scratch another, or be
        itself scratched; -- measured among minerals on a scale of
        which diamond and talc form the extremes.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Chem.) The peculiar quality exhibited by water which has
        mineral salts dissolved in it. Such water forms an
        insoluble compound with soap, and is hence unfit for
        washing purposes.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: This quality is caused by the presence of calcium
           carbonate, causing temporary hardness which can be
           removed by boiling, or by calcium sulphate, causing
           permanent hardness which can not be so removed, but may
           be improved by the addition of sodium carbonate.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  hardness
       n 1: the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure; not
            easily scratched; measured on Mohs scale [ant: {softness}]
       2: devoid of passion or feeling [syn: {unfeelingness}, {callousness},
           {insensibility}]
       3: the quality of being difficult to do; "he assigned a series
          of problems of increasing hardness"
       4: excessive sternness; "severity of character"; "the harshness
          of his punishment was inhuman"; "the rigors of boot camp"
          [syn: {severity}, {harshness}, {rigor}, {rigour}, {inclemency},
           {stiffness}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  158 Moby Thesaurus words for "hardness":
     Philistinism, abstruseness, arduousness, armor, asperity,
     astringency, austerity, bothersomeness, burdensomeness, callosity,
     callousness, callus, closeness, cohesiveness, coldbloodedness,
     coldheartedness, coldness, compactness, complexity, complication,
     congestedness, congestion, consistence, consistency, crabbedness,
     crampedness, crowdedness, cruelty, deepness, denseness, density,
     difficultness, difficulty, durability, esoterica, firmness,
     flintiness, formidable defenses, fundamentalism, gluiness,
     grimness, hairiness, hard heart, hard shell, hardenedness,
     hardheartedness, hardiness, hardness of heart, hardship, harshness,
     heart of stone, heartlessness, impenetrability, impenitence,
     impenitentness, impermeability, imperviousness, impliability,
     imporosity, inclemency, incompressibility, induration,
     inexorability, inexorableness, inflexibility, infrangibility,
     insensitiveness, insensitivity, insolence, intricacy, inuredness,
     irrepentance, jammedness, knottiness, laboriousness, lastingness,
     leatherlikeness, mercilessness, nonrepentance, obduracy,
     obdurateness, obstinacy, onerousness, oppressiveness, orthodoxy,
     pitilessness, precisianism, profoundness, profundity, purism,
     puritanism, reconditeness, relative density, relentlessness,
     remorselessness, resistance, rhinoceros hide, rigidity, rigidness,
     rigor, rigorousness, ropiness, roughness, ruggedness, ruthlessness,
     seared conscience, severity, short shrift, solidity, solidness,
     soundness, specific gravity, spissitude, stability, stamina,
     staunchness, sternness, stiffness, stoniness, stoutness, strength,
     strenuousness, stringency, stringiness, stubbornness, sturdiness,
     temper, tenacity, tender mercies, thick skin, thickness,
     toilsomeness, toughness, troublesomeness, unabjectness,
     unbendingness, unbreakability, unbreakableness,
     uncompassionateness, uncompromisingness, uncontriteness, unfeeling,
     unfeelingness, unforgivingness, ungentleness, unmercifulness,
     unnaturalness, unrelentingness, unremorsefulness, unresponsiveness,
     unsympatheticness, unyieldingness, vicissitude, vigor, viscidity,
     viscosity, viscousness, vitality