Antonyms of verb harden

2 of 5 senses of harden

Sense 1
harden, indurate -- (become hard or harder; "The wax hardened")
       Antonym of soften (Sense 7)
      => soften -- (become soft or softer; "The bread will soften if you pour some liquid on it")

Sense 2
harden, indurate -- (make hard or harder; "The cold hardened the butter")
       Antonym of soften (Sense 6)
      => soften -- (make soft or softer; "This liquid will soften your laundry")

Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of verb harden

5 senses of harden

Sense 1
harden, indurate -- (become hard or harder; "The wax hardened")
       => change -- (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature; "She changed completely as she grew older"; "The weather changed last night")

Sense 2
harden, indurate -- (make hard or harder; "The cold hardened the butter")
       => change -- (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature; "She changed completely as she grew older"; "The weather changed last night")

Sense 3
temper, harden -- (harden by reheating and cooling in oil; "temper steel")
       => modify -- (make less severe or harsh or extreme; "please modify this letter to make it more polite"; "he modified his views on same-gender marriage")

Sense 4
season, harden -- (make fit; "This trip will season even the hardiest traveller")
       => toughen -- (make tough or tougher; "This experience will toughen her")

Sense 5
inure, harden, indurate -- (cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate; "He was inured to the cold")
       => habituate, accustom -- (make psychologically or physically used (to something); "She became habituated to the background music")

Antonyms of adj hardened

5 senses of hardened

Sense 1
case-hardened, hardened, hard-boiled -- (used of persons; emotionally hardened; "faced a case-hardened judge")

INDIRECT (VIA hard) -> soft -- (compassionate and kind; conciliatory; "he was soft on his children")

Sense 2
tempered (vs. untempered), treated, hardened, toughened -- (made hard or flexible or resilient especially by heat treatment; "a sword of tempered steel"; "tempered glass")


Sense 3
hardened (vs. soft) -- (protected against attack (especially by nuclear weapons); "hardened missile silos")

soft (vs. hardened) -- (not protected against attack (especially by nuclear weapons); "soft targets")

Sense 4
enured, inured, hardened -- (made tough by habitual exposure; "hardened fishermen"; "a peasant, dark, lean-faced, wind-inured"- Robert Lynd; "our successors...may be graver, more inured and equable men"- V.S.Pritchett)

INDIRECT (VIA tough) -> tender, untoughened -- (physically untoughened; "tender feet")

Sense 5
hardened, set -- (converted to solid form (as concrete))

INDIRECT (VIA hard) -> soft -- (yielding readily to pressure or weight)

Similarity of adj hardened

5 senses of hardened

Sense 1
case-hardened, hardened, hard-boiled -- (used of persons; emotionally hardened; "faced a case-hardened judge")
       => hard (vs. soft) -- (dispassionate; "took a hard look"; "a hard bargainer";)

Sense 2
tempered (vs. untempered), treated, hardened, toughened -- (made hard or flexible or resilient especially by heat treatment; "a sword of tempered steel"; "tempered glass")
       => curable -- (capable of being hardened by some additive or other agent)
       => sunbaked -- (baked or hardened by exposure to sunlight; not burned; "sunbaked adobe bricks")

Sense 3
hardened (vs. soft) -- (protected against attack (especially by nuclear weapons); "hardened missile silos")

Sense 4
enured, inured, hardened -- (made tough by habitual exposure; "hardened fishermen"; "a peasant, dark, lean-faced, wind-inured"- Robert Lynd; "our successors...may be graver, more inured and equable men"- V.S.Pritchett)
       => tough (vs. tender), toughened -- (physically toughened; "the tough bottoms of his feet")

Sense 5
hardened, set -- (converted to solid form (as concrete))
       => hard (vs. soft) -- (resisting weight or pressure)