Tough

//tʌf// adj, intj, noun, verb, slang

adj, intj, noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person who obtains things by force; a thug or bully.

    "They were doing fine until they encountered a bunch of toughs from the opposition."

  2. 2
    a cruel and brutal fellow wordnet
  3. 3
    an aggressive and violent young criminal wordnet
  4. 4
    someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To endure.

    "We shall reminisce on how we toughed it through the winters as they reached the firm, long arm around to give the cold embrace, with ardor seldom loosed till warm winds Marched or Apriled in to soften winter's knuckles -- send rivulets of courage down to dandelions and tulips."

  2. 2
    To toughen.
Adjective
  1. 1
    Strong and resilient; sturdy.

    "The tent, made of tough canvas, held up to many abuses."

  2. 2
    Difficult to cut or chew.

    "To soften a tough cut of meat, the recipe suggested simmering it for hours."

  3. 3
    Rugged or physically hardy.

    "Only a tough species will survive in the desert."

  4. 4
    Stubborn or persistent; capable of stubbornness or persistence.

    "He had a reputation as a tough negotiator."

  5. 5
    Harsh or severe. usually
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  1. 6
    Rowdy or rough.

    "A bunch of the tough boys from the wrong side of the tracks threatened him."

  2. 7
    Difficult or demanding. usually

    "This is a tough crowd."

  3. 8
    Undergoing plastic deformation before breaking. material
  4. 9
    Strict, not lenient.

    "tough on crime"

Adjective
  1. 1
    feeling physical discomfort or pain (‘tough’ is occasionally used colloquially for ‘bad’) wordnet
  2. 2
    substantially made or constructed wordnet
  3. 3
    making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe wordnet
  4. 4
    very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution wordnet
  5. 5
    unfortunate or hard to bear wordnet
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  1. 6
    resistant to cutting or chewing wordnet
  2. 7
    physically toughened wordnet
  3. 8
    not given to gentleness or sentimentality wordnet
  4. 9
    violent and lawless wordnet
Intj
  1. 1
    Used to indicate lack of sympathy slang

    "If you don't like it, tough!"

Synonyms

All synonyms
badbullycartilaginouschewyfibroushood

Example

More examples

"No sooner had we finished working on one tough problem than the president sent us yet another straight from the top."

Etymology

From Middle English tough, towgh, tou, toȝ, from Old English tōh (“tough, tenacious, holding fast together; pliant; sticky, glutinous, clammy”), from Proto-West Germanic *tą̄h(ī), from Proto-Germanic *tanhuz (“fitting; clinging; tenacious; tough”), from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian toai, Low German tei, tah, tage, Dutch taai, Luxembourgish zéi, German zäh(e), Bavarian zaach, all principally “chewy, leathery, sticky”, and hence “tenacious, resilient, dogged”.

Related phrases

do it toughhang toughtough act to followtough as nailstough as old bootstough as teaktough asktough bananastough breaktough calltough casetough cookie

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.