Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HARD'NESS, n. [See Hard.]

1. Firmness; close union of the component parts; compactness; solidity; the quality of bodies which resists impression; opposed to softness and fluidity.
2. Difficulty to be understood. Shak.
3. Difficulty to be executed or accomplished; as, the hardness of an enterprise. Sidney.
4. Scarcity; penury; difficulty of obtaining money; as, the hardness of the times. Swift. as, hardness of heart.
5. Obduracy; impenitence; confirmed state of wickedness; as, hardness of heart.
6. Coarseness of features; harshness of look; as, hardness of favor. Ray.
7. Severity of cold; rigor; as, the hardness of winter.
8. Cruelty of temper; savageness; harshness. The blame / May hang upon your hardness. Shak.
9. Stiffness; harshness; roughness; as, the hardnesses of sculpture. Dryden.
10. Closeness; niggardliness; stinginess. Johnson.
11. Hardship; severe labor, trials or sufferings. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. ii.