tough
Part of speech: adj
intj
noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
science
sciences
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 *tinganą (“to press upon, throng”), from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”).
Cognates
Cognate with Saterland Frisian toai (“tough”), Bavarian zaach, zach (“tough”), Dutch taai (“tough”), German zäh, zähe (“tough”), Limburgish tiee (“tough”), Luxembourgish zéi (“tough”); also Ancient Greek δάκνω (dáknō, “to bite”), Albanian danë, darë (“tongs; pincers; pliers”), Sanskrit दशति (daśati, “to bite”).
Inflected forms:
form: tougher
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: toughest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: tuff
pos: adj
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
form: tuff
pos: intj
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
form: toughs
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: tuff
pos: noun
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
form: toughs
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: toughing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: toughed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: toughed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: tuff
pos: verb
tags: alternative
pronunciation-spelling
Senses:
gloss: Of a material, strong and resilient; sturdy.
pos: adj
examples: The tent, made of tough canvas, held up to many abuses.
gloss: Of food, difficult to cut or chew.
pos: adj
examples: To soften a tough cut of meat, the recipe suggested simmering it for hours.
gloss: Of a person or animal, rugged or physically hardy.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: Only a tough species will survive in the desert.
But before you quit turkey hunting and take up model-train collecting, let me give you the good news: you can score on tough turkeys. In fact, you can kill the toughest turkey in the woods.
gloss: Of a person, stubborn or persistent; capable of stubbornness or persistence.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: He had a reputation as a tough negotiator.
gloss: Of weather, harsh or severe.
pos: adj
tags: informal
gloss: Rowdy or rough.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
examples: A bunch of the tough boys from the wrong side of the tracks threatened him.
gloss: Of a question, difficult or demanding.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
informal
examples: This is a tough crowd.
1998, Lois Liederman Davitz, Joel Robert Davitz, 20 Tough Questions Teenagers Ask and 20 Tough Answers, Paulist Press, pages 6-7,
But let's get back to the tough question about sex before marriage. And this is a tough question. In fact we would rank the question you've both raised as pretty high on our list of tough questions.
Anderson: We fought hard to get here. But now the toughest part of our mission begins.
Anderson: We've got to drive right through the heart of Reaper-controlled territory, break past their defenses, and get to that beacon.
2010, Rushworth M. Kidder, Good Kids, Tough Choices, Wiley (Jossey-Bass), page 96,
What Lara faced, in fact, falls right into the pool of light beneath our second lens: making tough choices.
gloss: Undergoing plastic deformation before breaking.
pos: adj
tags: material
gloss: Strict, not lenient.
pos: adj
tags: figuratively
informal
examples: tough on crime
President Joe Biden is embracing tougher border measures, including shutting down the US-Mexico border, marking a stark shift from his early days in office as he tries to fend off former President Donald Trump’s attacks on immigration policy ahead of the election.
gloss: Used to indicate lack of sympathy
pos: intj
tags: slang
examples: If you don't like it, tough!
No one ever came to me and told me they didn't like the song, but people had mentioned stuff to other members of the band, who, surprisingly enough, stuck up for me. They were straight but they said, you know, tough. He's our singer, and we like his music.
gloss: A person who obtains things by force; a thug or bully.
pos: noun
examples: They were doing fine until they encountered a bunch of toughs from the opposition.
One of his best stories was "Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life" (1914), of which there survives only an amusing still, showing poor Mabel Normand chained to the rails by two toughs, the moustached villain threatening her with a sledge-hammer, and an awful sense of that inexorably approaching express!
He was in his early fifties, extensively tattooed, just the sort of tough I wouldn't want to meet alone in a parking lot at night, but right then he was whimpering.
gloss: To endure.
pos: verb
examples: 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.
“No,” said Minott, “I've toughed it through the winter, and i want to stay and hear the bluebirds once more.
Universal Plant Edibility Test The following sounds like a lot of work—it is!—but that's because it comes from the US Army Survival Manual as republished in 1994 as "a civilian's best guide for toughing it, anyplace in the world...a must for campers, hikers, explorers, pilots, and others whose vocation or avocations require familiarity with the wilderness or out-of-doors..."
gloss: To toughen.
pos: verb
Derived words: do it tough
hang tough
semitough
supertough
tough act to follow
tough ask
tough as nails
tough as old boots
tough as teak
tough bananas
tough beans
tough break
tough-cake
tough call
tough case
tough cookie
tough cookies
tough crowd
toughen
tough going
tough guy
tough-guy
tough-guyness
toughhearted
toughie
toughish
tough love
tough-love
tough luck
toughly
toughminded
tough-minded
toughness
tough noogies
tough nut
tough nut to crack
tough on crime
tough pill to swallow
tough-pitch
tough road to hoe
tough row to hoe
tough sell
toughshank
tough shit
tough-skinned
tough sledding
tough tacos
tough tarts
tough times
tough titties
tough titty
tough titty said the kitty
tough toenails
tough toodles
tough tooshie
tough tuchus
tough tushie
toughy
ultratough
untough
when the going gets tough, the tough get going
tough out
tough it out
Translations:
lang: Bulgarian
word: жилав
roman: žilav
lang: Bulgarian
word: корав
roman: korav
lang: Dutch
word: taai
lang: Finnish
word: sitkeä
lang: Galician
word: duro
lang: German
word: zäh
lang: Greek
word: σκληρός
roman: sklirós
lang: Hungarian
word: rágós
lang: Irish
word: righin
lang: Italian
word: duro
lang: Italian
word: coriaceo
lang: Japanese
word: 硬い
roman: katai
lang: Khmer
word: រឹង
roman: rɨng
lang: Khmer
word: ស្វិត
roman: svət
lang: Māori
word: kākatikati
lang: Māori
word: pūioio
lang: Māori
word: kākoa
lang: Norwegian
word: seig
lang: Pashto
word: کلک
roman: klak
lang: Persian
word: سفت
roman: seft
lang: Persian
word: چغر
roman: čeġer
lang: Plautdietsch
word: toag
lang: Polish
word: twardy
lang: Portuguese
word: duro
lang: Russian
word: жёсткий
roman: žóstkij
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: righinn
lang: Swedish
word: seg
lang: Turkish
word: sert
lang: Vietnamese
word: khó nhai
lang: Vietnamese
word: dai