hardy
adjectivenouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//ˈhɑːdi//
- United States//ˈhɑɹdi//
Having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships.
adjective
- 1
Having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships.
It is an useful sort of the smaller kind of hogs, that is hardy in its nature and of considerable weight in proportion to its size.
Even adding 1mm of thickness to the cardboard, to make it hardier, might use up a substantial forest when multiplied across hundreds of billions of boxes.
- 2
Able to survive adverse growing conditions, especially frost.
A hardy plant is one that can withstand the extremes of climate, such as frost.
The oat is hardier than wheat, and ripens in higher latitudes.
By watching where the snow melted first, I discovered warmer spots that I knew would be possible locations for late-winter bloomers or borderline hardy plants.
- 3
Brave and resolute.
But he was not ſo hardy to abide That bitter ſtownd, but turning quicke aſide His light-foot beaſt, fled faſt away for feare:
- 4
Impudent.
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.
noun
- 1
Anything, especially a plant, that is hardy.
Across the country, various bands of journalistic hardies — newsroom pros whose services are no longer salient to a crippled and disrupted information economy — have taken matters into their own hands.
- 2
A blacksmith's fuller or chisel, having a square shank for insertion into a square hole in an anvil.
- 3
A hardy hole.
Forms
- plural
- hardies
- comparative
- hardier
- superlative
- hardiest
hardy · Having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships.
Hardy · A common surname transferred from the nickname, originally a…hare · Any of several plant-eating mammals of the genus Lepus,…Hare · A surname transferred from the nickname.