case-hardened

adj — 2 senses

adj

Engineering, Metallurgy, Natural sciences, Physical sciences Of metal: harder at its surface, due to a case hardening process.

Broadly, Figuratively Hardened by experience.

Even a case-hardened monorailist must blench at the thought of the storm such a proposition would create.1964 July, “The mythology of monorails”, in Modern Railways, page 57:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.