toughening up
Becoming more durable
Toughening up is becoming stronger, more resilient, or less sensitive—or making someone else that way.
The phrase often appears in advice about emotional hardening: You need to toughen up if you're going to survive in this business.
It can also refer to physical conditioning or making rules more stringent: The league is toughening up its penalties for fighting.
- sturdinessStrength and solidity
- strengthenMake more robust
- building characterMoral development through difficulty
- fortitudeEnduring courage under pain
- hardinessAbility to endure adversity
fortify · robustness · inuring · sink or swim · thick skin · sucking it up · stiff upper lip · tenacity · acclimatization · determination · conditioning · grit · resolve · brace · no pain no gain · ruggedness · tempering · perseverance
toughening upsoftening
Becoming less firm
weakening · breaking down · coddling · babying · mollycoddling
toughening upcoddling
Overindulgent, protective treatment
babying · pampering · mollycoddling · spoiling · sheltering
tough, toughen, toughened, toughens, toughening, tougher, toughest, toughly, toughness