How to Use toughen in a Sentence

toughen

verb

• The government is toughening antidrug laws.
• 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
• 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
• At that time, lawmakers were looking to toughen the penalties for gun crime.
  — Gene Maddaus, Variety, 8 Feb. 2023
• One father wanted his boy to toughen up and not complain.
  — Keith Gessen, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 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
• In California, a new ballot initiative could toughen sentences for shoplifting and selling fentanyl.
  — Shannon Heffernan, USA TODAY, 1 Aug. 2024

Last Updated: 12 Nov 2024