Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Made tough, resilient, or accustomed to something difficult or unpleasant through prolonged experience or habitual exposure. It describes a state of being hardened or desensitized, often to hardship, discomfort, or challenging conditions.

Examples of Usage

• Adjective:
  • The soldiers became enured to the harsh conditions of the desert.
  • After years of working night shifts, she was enured to the lack of sleep.
  • Farmers are often enured to physical labor and changing weather.

Advanced Usage

• "To become enured to something": This is the most common construction, indicating the process of developing toughness or tolerance.
  • Over time, the medical students became enured to the sights and smells of the hospital.
• "Enured by [experience]": Highlights the cause of the hardening.
  • His spirit was enured by years of adversity.

Variants and Related Words

• Inure (verb): The verb form meaning to accustom someone to something, especially something unpleasant.
  • The training is designed to inure recruits to stress.
• Inurement (noun): The process or result of becoming inured.
• Hardened (adj.): A close synonym, often interchangeable with "enured."
• Seasoned (adj.): Experienced and toughened by exposure, often in a professional context (e.g., a seasoned journalist).
• Desensitized (adj.): Made less sensitive or reactive, often emotionally; can overlap with "enured" but sometimes implies a loss of normal feeling.

Synonyms

• Hardened
• Accustomed
• Conditioned
• Toughened
• Habituated

Antonyms

• Sensitive
• Unaccustomed
• Vulnerable
• Tender
• Susceptible

Related Phrases

• To grow a thick skin: An idiomatic expression similar to becoming enured, especially to criticism.
  • Politicians must grow a thick skin to handle constant scrutiny.
• To be broken in: Often used for objects or, informally, for people becoming accustomed to a new routine.
  • The new boots are finally broken in and comfortable. (For objects)
  • After a few weeks, the new employee was broken in to the fast pace. (Informal for people)

Adjective

1. made tough by habitual exposure
   • hardened fishermen
   • a peasant, dark, lean-faced, wind-inured- Robert Lynd
   • our successors...may be graver, more inured and equable men- V.S.Pritchett