Hardening that occurs when extensive manipulation reduces the size of grains in a polycrystalline material.

The increased stiffness and brittleness accompanying plastic deformation of metal.

An increase in hardness and strength caused by plastic deformation at temperatures lower than the recrystallization temperature. Sometimes referred to as strain hardening.

An increase in resistance to deformation produced by cold working.

The increase in hardness and strength produced by cold plastic deformation or mechanical working.

The hardening of a metal caused by hammering or bending, which often makes the metal too hard to work with until it has been softened by annealing.

Same as strain hardening.

Work hardening, or strain hardening, is an increase in mechanical strength due to plastic deformation. In metallic solids, permanent change of shape is usually carried out on a microscopic scale by defects called dislocations which are created by stress and rearrange the material by moving through it. At low temperature, these defects do not anneal out of the material, but build up as the material is worked, interfering with one another's motion and thereby increasing strength and ductility is decreased by considerable amount.