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third-person singular simple present coarsens, present participle coarsening, simple past and past participle coarsened
(transitive) To make (more) coarse. quotations examples
She appeared to be neither wooden nor stationary, but a singing spirit, young and fresh, passing through the jungle. No violence coarsened her; no power domineered to wither her. She was graciously feminine.
1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 6 "D'Sonoqua,"
[…] as the years went by, democracy and its wide audiences tended to broaden and coarsen humor.
1978 March, R. Z. Sheppard, “She-Wits and Funny Persons”, in Time
(intransitive) To become (more) coarse. quotations examples
He was intolerable now except under the influence of liquor, and as he seemed to decay and coarsen under her eyes, Gloria's soul and body shrank away from him […]
1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, (please specify |book=1, 2, or 3)
[…] though her skin had coarsened in the last ten years, the dark red of her cheeks and lips was as vivid as ever.
1925, Ellen Glasgow, chapter 14, in Barren Ground