Experience became hard in two different ways (2,7)
I believe the answer is:
go through
'experience' is the definition.
('go through' can be a synonym of 'experience')
'became hard in two different ways' is the wordplay.
'became' becomes 'got' ('get' can be a synonym of 'become').
'hard' becomes 'h'.
'in two different ways' becomes 'rough' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'got'+'h'+'rough'='GO THROUGH'
(Other definitions for go through that I've seen before include "Face" , "Use up - experience" , "be accepted" , "Suffer from" , "brave" .)