tough
Other forms: tougher; toughest; toughs
The adjective tough is good for describing hard times. If you just got mugged, lost your job, got the flu, and broke your toe, you're having a really tough week.
Tough means "strong, hard, unbending," and you can use it to describe many different things, like a tough exam, or a tough piece of beef jerky, or a tough day that you just want to be over. If a judge punishes criminals harshly to set examples, she's "tough on crime." We call people toughs if they seem likely to beat you up. Tough things are made to withstand a beating, like the tires on your mountain bike. Pronounce: TUFF.
Definitions of tough
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substantially made or constructed
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physically toughened“the tough bottoms of his feet”
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synonyms:
toughened
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rugged
sturdy and strong in constitution or construction; enduring
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experienced, experient
having experience; having knowledge or skill from observation or participation
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strong
having strength or power greater than average or expected
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callous, calloused, callused, thickened
having calluses; having skin made tough and thick through wear
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enured, hardened, inured
made tough by habitual exposure
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weather-beaten
tanned and coarsened from being outdoors
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Antonyms:
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tender, untoughened
physically untoughened
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weak
wanting in physical strength
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delicate, soft
easily hurt
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rugged
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resistant to cutting or chewing
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Synonyms:
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inedible, uneatable
not suitable for food
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cartilaginous, gristly, rubbery
difficult to chew
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chewy
requiring much chewing
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coriaceous, leathered, leatherlike, leathery
resembling or made to resemble leather; tough but pliable
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fibrous, sinewy, stringy, unchewable
(of meat) full of sinews; especially impossible to chew
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fibrous, hempen
having or resembling fibers especially fibers used in making cordage such as those of jute
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tough-skinned
having a relatively tough outer covering
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Antonyms:
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tender
easy to cut or chew
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comestible, eatable, edible
suitable for use as food
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chewable, cuttable
easy to cut or chew
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crisp, crispy, crunchy
tender and brittle
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flakey, flaky
made of or easily forming flakes
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tenderised, tenderized
made tender as by marinating or pounding
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inedible, uneatable
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violent and lawless
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not given to gentleness or sentimentality“a tough character”
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Synonyms:
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hard
dispassionate
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insensitive
deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive
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hard-bitten, hard-boiled, pugnacious
tough and callous by virtue of experience
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tough-minded, unsentimental
facing facts or difficulties realistically and with determination
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Antonyms:
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tender
given to sympathy or gentleness or sentimentality
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soft
compassionate and kind; conciliatory
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protective
showing care
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sentimental
given to or marked by sentiment or sentimentality
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hard
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a cruel and brutal fellow
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types:
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bullyboy
a swaggering tough; usually one acting as an agent of a political faction
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muscle, muscleman
a bully employed as a thug or bodyguard
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skinhead
a young person who belongs to a British or American group that shave their heads and gather at rock concerts or engage in white supremacist demonstrations
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plug-ugly, tough guy
someone who bullies weaker people
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Ted, Teddy boy
a tough youth of 1950's and 1960's wearing Edwardian style clothes
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an aggressive and violent young criminal
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someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing
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synonyms:
street fighter
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type of:
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battler, belligerent, combatant, fighter, scrapper
someone who fights (or is fighting)
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battler, belligerent, combatant, fighter, scrapper
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very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution
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unfortunate or hard to bear
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making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
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synonyms:
baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical
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feeling physical discomfort or pain (`tough' is occasionally used colloquially for `bad')“he was feeling tough after a restless night”
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synonyms:
bad
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uncomfortable
providing or experiencing physical discomfort
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uncomfortable
Pronunciation
US
/təf/
UK
/təf/
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