Meaning

Unyielding boldness and daring; firmness in doing something that exposes one to difficulty, danger, or calamity; intrepidness..

Definitions by Sense

1. Unyielding boldness and daring; firmness in doing something that exposes one to difficulty, danger, or calamity; intrepidness.
2. Excessive boldness; foolish daring; offensive assurance.
3. (botany) Of a plant, an ability to withstand extreme conditions, hardiness.

Example Sentences

[…] he came to impart other news; to prepare the Earl for death; for the morrow was appointed for his execution. He received the intelligence with the firm hardihood of indignant virtue, disdaining to solicit, and disdaining to repine […]

Their talk, however, was the talk of sordid buccaneers: it was reckless without hardihood, greedy without audacity, and cruel without courage; there was not an atom of foresight or of serious intention in the whole batch of them, and they did not seem aware these things are wanted for the work of the world.

Once endured it is enjoyed as my owndom. Elsewhere I refer to this process of enduring hardship as the only possible source of hardihood.

[…] that God should enact a dispensation for hard hearts to do that wherby they must live in priviledg’d adultery, however it go for the receav’d opinion, I shall ever disswade my self from so much hardihood as to beleeve:

I have not the hardihood to dare to be vilely dishonest.

I began to realise the hardihood of my expedition among these unknown people.

I had not the arrogance—or the hardihood—to test my power again, but I put on hope, as a naked man welcomes rags in a winter storm.

The cheapness and hardihood of the musk-plant and marigold, to say nothing of their peculiar odour, has made them the most popular of “roots” […]

Word Forms

• hardihoods
• hardihead

Synonyms for hardihood

Antonyms for hardihood

Related Words

When Should You Use Hardihood?

Use hardihood when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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