How to Use toughen in a Sentence

toughen

verb
Definition of toughennext
Synonyms for toughennext
  • The government is toughening antidrug laws.
  • That comes from the ocean wind that toughens the skin of these grapes.
    — Bruce Schoenfeld, WIRED, 30 May 2018
  • 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
  • Roger tried again to take me to a local gym to toughen me up.
    — Marc Myers, WSJ, 23 Oct. 2018
  • As the lawsuits wended through the courts, the state was moving to toughen the law.
    — Maya Miller, ProPublica, 26 Oct. 2020
  • Over the last three months, at least eight states have toughened their gun laws.
    — Benjamin Hart, Daily Intelligencer, 2 June 2018
  • 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
  • Baynes will give the Suns an edge and toughen up Ayton in practice.
    — Duane Rankin, azcentral, 3 July 2019
  • 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
  • As for how the lizards managed to toughen up so quickly, the researchers aren’t yet sure.
    — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Jan. 2020
  • 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
  • DeWine plans to ask the legislature to toughen state laws for felons found with guns.
    — Sharon Coolidge, Cincinnati.com, 23 July 2019
  • It’s time for America to toughen up, stop whining, and get to work.
    — Hal Boedeker, OrlandoSentinel.com, 2 July 2018
  • His son's unit might have wanted to toughen his son up, Paul Clyde reasoned.
    — Jennifer Emily, Dallas News, 19 June 2019
  • 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
  • To toughen it up, Ford resorted to that longtime crossover hair shirt, the roof rack.
    — Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 6 July 2020
  • Last year's big jump came on news of Trump threatening to toughen sanctions on Iran.
    — Jordan Blum, Houston Chronicle, 16 Sep. 2019
  • 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
  • The drop comes in a year that has seen China toughen censorship on the movie industry.
    — Echo Huang, Quartzy, 17 July 2019
  • The sides have been discussing an extension, but the lack of progress led to Gordon toughening his stance this past week.
    — Jeff Miller, latimes.com, 13 July 2019
  • No one talks glibly about police brutality or head injuries anymore, nor urges players to toughen up.
    — Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 15 Sep. 2024
  • The new rules, which toughen restrictions announced in June, bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed.
    — Rebecca Santana, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 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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