English Explanatory Dictionary

hardy

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships.
  2. Able to survive adverse growing conditions, especially frost.
  3. Brave and resolute.
  4. Impudent.
noun
  1. Anything, especially a plant, that is hardy.
  2. A blacksmith's fuller or chisel, having a square shank for insertion into a square hole in an anvil.
  3. A hardy hole.
name
  1. A former town in Manchester, England, now absorbed into Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
name
  1. A common surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a hardy person.
  2. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), English novelist and poet.
  3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
  4. A number of places in the United States:
  5. A minor city in Sharp County and Fulton County, Arkansas.
  6. An unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California.
  7. A minor city in Humboldt County, Iowa.
  8. An unincorporated community and coal town in Pike County, Kentucky.
  9. An unincorporated community in Grenada County, Mississippi.
  10. A census-designated place in Cascade County, Montana.
  11. A village in Nuckolls County, Nebraska.
  12. A township in Holmes County, Ohio.

Pronunciation

/ˈhɑɹdi/ /ˈhɑːdi/ en-us-hardy.ogg

Word forms

hardy hardier hardiest hardies Hardys

Etymology

From Middle English hardy, hardi, from Old French hardi (“hardy, daring, stout, bold”). Old French hardi is usually regarded as the past participle of hardir ("to harden, be bold, make bold"; compare Occitan ardir, Italian ardire), from Frankish *hardijan; but it may also have come directly from Frankish *hardi, a secondary form of Frankish *hard (compare Old High German harti, herti, secondary forms of Old High German hart (“hard”)); or even yet from Frankish *hardig (compare Middle Low German herdich (“persevering”), Old Danish hærdig, Norwegian herdig, Swedish härdig (“vigorous, courageous”)). Cognate with hard. May have at some point also been surface analysed as hard + -y.

Synonyms

hearty robust rugged strong

Antonyms

tender

Related words

foolhardy

Derived words

cold hardy crack hardy hale and hardy half-hardy hardihead hardihood hardily hardiness hardiship Hardy hardy ageratum hardy catalpa hardyhead hardy kiwi hardy orange hardy perennial nonhardy overhardy party hardy party-hardy root-hardy root hardy semihardy unhardy winterhardy winter-hardy Chorlton-cum-Hardy Hardyan Hardy County Hardyesque Hardy field Hardyism Hardy-Littlewood circle method Hardy-Ramanujan number Hardyston Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium Hardy-Weinberg law Hardy-Weinberg model Hardy-Weinberg principle Laurel and Hardy Ramanujan-Hardy number
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