Alongside it, a painted silk flag kept for years in a cramped glass case had hardened to the point of cracking.

Three years and two wars later, attitudes toward America have hardened still further.

A few hundred years of respectability and the attitude was hardening.

A year of training - lifting weights and running three miles a day five days a week - has hardened his body.

Despite her unchanged looks, the last two years had hardened her.

Ten years as a cop hadn't hardened her toward it.

The ten years since had hardened him even more.

The long years on the march had hardened them.

The years of war and slaughter had hardened Woolley into a humorless cynic.

Or perhaps his years on the field of battle had hardened him.