tough love
a mixture of toughness and warmth used in a relationship, especially with an adolescent.
Origin of tough love
1Words Nearby tough love
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use tough love in a sentence
A veteran of the first Iraq war in the early 1990s, he was 10 years older than most of his charges, and he treated them with a father’s tough love.
In the shadow of the towers: Five lives and a world transformed | Joby Warrick, Souad Mekhennet | September 2, 2021 | Washington PostBeing told the country needs tough love when the facts suggest otherwise is not going down well with the public.
Australia Wants to Open the Great Barrier Reef to Dumping | Kirsten Alexander | June 2, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTWe need to put aside our partisan criticism and start helping him with some tough love.
tough love and discipline are the lessons this View host offered her wide-eyed applicant.
Time for some tough love—Republicans leaders have dumped a 100-page report that spells out why their party is in dire straits.
Sore Losers: 7 Juicy Bits From the GOP’s Autopsy Report | Caitlin Dickson | March 18, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
We also push each other with some serious tough love when needed.
British Dictionary definitions for tough love
the practice of taking a stern attitude towards a relative or friend suffering from an addiction, etc, to help the addict overcome the problem
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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