tough
Americanadjective
-
tougher,
comparative
-
toughest
superlative
-
strong and durable; not easily broken or cut.
- Antonyms:
- fragile
-
not brittle or tender.
-
difficult to masticate, as food.
a tough steak.
-
of viscous consistency, as liquid or semiliquid matter.
tough molasses.
-
capable of great endurance; sturdy; hardy.
tough troops.
- Synonyms:
- durable
-
not easily influenced, as a person; unyielding; stubborn.
a tough man to work for.
- Synonyms:
- inflexible
-
hardened; incorrigible.
a tough criminal.
-
difficult to perform, accomplish, or deal with; hard, trying, or troublesome.
a tough problem.
-
hard to bear or endure (often used ironically).
tough luck.
-
vigorous; severe; violent.
a tough struggle.
-
vicious; rough; rowdyish.
a tough character;
a tough neighborhood.
-
practical, realistic, and lacking in sentimentality; tough-minded.
-
Slang. remarkably excellent; first-rate; great.
adverb
noun
-
toughs
plural
idioms
-
hang tough, hang.
-
tough it out, to endure or resist hardship or adversity.
adjective
-
strong or resilient; durable
a tough material
-
not tender
he could not eat the tough steak
-
having a great capacity for endurance; hardy and fit
a tough mountaineer
-
rough or pugnacious
a tough gangster
-
resolute or intractable
a tough employer
-
difficult or troublesome to do or deal with
a tough problem
-
informal unfortunate or unlucky
it's tough on him
noun
adverb
-
informal violently, aggressively, or intractably
to treat someone tough
-
informal to be or appear to be strong or determined
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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toughnessnoun
-
untoughnessnoun
-
supertoughadjective
-
toughishadjective
-
untoughadjective
-
toughlyadverb
-
untoughlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of tough
First recorded before 900; Middle English (adjective); Old English tōh; compare Dutch taai, German zäh(e)
Explanation
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.
Vocabulary lists containing tough
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Cassidy’s support almost certainly means that Blanche, who faced tough questioning from even some of Cassidy’s fellow Republicans over his loyalty to the president, will be confirmed as the country’s chief law-enforcement officer.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2026
Additionally, despite the tough results, gaming ads still significantly outperformed the market, the analysts say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
But he is sceptical about how much Argos can grow in such a "tough retail market".
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Space-trackers like Bill Gray knew it would be tough to observe evidence of the impact from Earth.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
“He was a tough one. But I liked him, y’know?”
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
“Do your feet a favor,” he tells the toughs.
From New York Times ● Jun. 21, 2023
The entrepreneur, who for security reasons asked that neither he nor the specific nature of his business be identified, initially thought the calls were coming from neighborhood toughs pretending to have links to crime groups.
From Reuters ● Oct. 29, 2022
I brought a retired Chicago cop, an Irish bachelor farmer and some shambolic street toughs with me on my recent vacation to Portugal.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 31, 2022
The hodgepodge of grievances brings to mind a scene from the 1953 movie “The Wild One,” about a gang of motorcycle toughs who invade a small California town.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2021
Since there was no applause from Fern and me the first time around, she started up again, as zombielike as she could, to imitate the toughs standing around outside the pool hall.
From "One Crazy Summer" by Rita Williams-Garcia
Unlike the U.S., which gives a detailed breakdown weekly of private and government stockpiles, much of the developing world is tougher to gauge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
There was never any question about whether both would become citizens, but the decision comes as the Australian government prepares to introduce tougher visa rules aimed at cutting migration.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Things have become tougher for property executives than in decades under Mamdani, who ran on a platform of making the city more affordable for lower-income New Yorkers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
But although the seasonal calendar points to a tougher period for stocks, NDR said cautious investor sentiment, improving market breadth and stock-favoring asset-allocation models suggest there isn’t enough evidence yet to turn bearish.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
If things got tight, Mom kept reminding us that some of the other kids on Little Hobart Street had it tougher than we did.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Yusuf said the party "would introduce the toughest penalties anywhere in the world for illegal working".
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
A value above 1400 HV places the resulting carbide among the toughest materials commonly used in industry, below superhard substances such as sapphire and diamond.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
Indonesia has some of the world's toughest anti-drug laws, including the death penalty for traffickers, but has maintained a moratorium on executions for several years.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
California has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws, but state lawmakers are concerned that a new technology is allowing criminals to obtain firearms by building them from scratch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 19, 2026
Soon they were breaking even the toughest codes and ciphers.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
