ppl. a. Hardened on the surface. a. lit.
1691. Lond. Gaz., No. 2624/4. A small screwed Case-hardened Lock.
1831. J. Holland, Manuf. Metals, I. 288. The method will succeed well with case-hardened goods.
b. transf. and fig.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), A aa 2. A case-hardened or weather-beaten tar.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, v. Eventually, I cared nothing for a flogging. I had become case-hardened.
1863. Cowden Clarke, Shaks. Char., xiii. 328. The callous and case-hardened of the old world.
