Definition of "hardiness"

The quality of being hardy.

1. The quality of being able to withstand fatigue and hardship; (of a plant) the quality of being resistant to cold or other environmental conditions.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • […] with usefull and generous labours preserving the bodies health, and hardinesse; to render lightsome, cleare, and not lumpish obedience to the minde,

     1642, John Milton, An apology against a pamphlet call’d A modest confutation of the animadversions upon the remonstrant against Smectymnuus‎, London: John Rothwell, page 13

   • But the Houynhnhnms train up their Youth to Strength, Speed, and Hardineſs, by exerciſing them in running Races up and down ſteep Hills, and over hard and ſtony Grounds […]

     1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Relates Several Particulars of the Yahoos. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 284

   • Wild wheat is small and hard, quite capable of looking after itself, but its heads contain only a few small kernels. Cultivated wheat has lost its hardiness and its self-reliance, but its heads are filled with large kernels which feed the nation.

     1915, Nellie McClung, chapter 4, in In Times Like These‎, Toronto: McLeod & Allen

2. (obsolete) The quality of being bold in the face of risk or authority.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Plentie, and Peace breeds Cowards: Hardneſſe euer / Of Hardineſſe is Mother.

     1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene vi], page 385, column 2

   • […] they who were not yet grown to the hardineſs of Avowing the contempt of the King […] would ſooner have been checked, and recovered their Loyalty and Obedience.

     1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, “Book V”, in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], volume I, part II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the Theater, published 1707, page 465

   • […] for every sorrow that his heart turned from, he lost a consolation; for every fear which he dared not confront, he lost a portion of his hardiness; the unsceptred sweep of the storm-clouds, the fair freedom of glancing shower and flickering sunbeam, sank into sweet rectitudes and decent formalisms;

     1856, John Ruskin, chapter 6, in Modern Painters, volume III (part IV), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], § 6

(obsolete) Hardship; fatigue.  quotations