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• n  abnormal hardening or thickening of tissue
• n  the process of becoming hard or solid by cooling or drying or crystallization
  the hardening of concrete
• n  the act of making something harder (firmer or tighter or more compact)
• v  become hard or harder
• v  make hard or harder
• v  harden by reheating and cooling in oil
• v  make fit
• v  cause to accept or become hardened to; habituate

• This hardening can potentially block the arteries and impede blood flow causing both heart attacks and strokes.
• Analysis: A hardening of positions in both Washington and Tehran has created something of a diplomatic perfect storm.
• The slight hardening of a soft smile and a lift of the chin transformed her from Gauguinesque to Egyptian.

• solidifying
• solidification
• set
• curing
• harden
• indurate
• temper
• season
• inure

• soften

News & Articles

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• Sunni clerics call for jihad against Syria's Assad, allies
  By Omar Fahmy CAIRO (Reuters) - A congress of leading Sunni Muslim clerics issued a call to holy war on Thursday against the Damascus government and its Shi'ite allies, hardening sectarian confrontation across the Middle East over the Syrian conflict. Alarmed by reverses for the mainly Sunni rebels since the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah threw its full weight behind President Bashar ...
  June 13, 2013 - Reuters via Yahoo! News

Quotes

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• Mohamed ElBaradei in Melbourne Herald Sun
  Mr ElBaradei, who has headed the IAEA for 11 years, said sanctions may have led to "more hardening of the position of Iran", the report said. "Many Iranians who even dislike the regime (are) gathering around the regime because they feel that...
• Ismail Haniyeh in Africasia
  Its well-known goals are normalisation with the Arabs, the hardening of internal divisions and the preparation for the coming attack on Iran and Gaza and Syria and Lebanon,Hamas leader Ismail Haniya said in Gaza City on Sunday.
• Paul Tagliabue in USA Today
  I do think there needs to be an outreach and more reality on both sides,Tagliabue said. "There needs to be a positive dose of reality on both sides of the table. To some degree, positions are hardening on both sides when they shouldn't...