hard as nails

Idioms  

1. Unyielding, callous, unsympathetic, as in Don't ask her for a contribution—she's hard as nails. This expression has replaced the 14th-century simile hard as flint stone and presumably alludes to the rigidity of nails.

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Example Sentences

It was that he had all the best qualities you’d want in somebody; his heart of gold, and then you couple that with him just being hard as nails and tough, no quit ever.

From Los Angeles Times

But next comes an admission, from this professionally tough politician, described to me by one of her colleagues once as 'hard as nails', that when things get personal, she doesn't like it.

From BBC

"I always well up when I watch it. But Jenny, who remains a close friend, doesn't. Hard as nails, she is!"

From BBC

Although Chicago describes herself as “a pussycat,” she’s actually hard as nails, and although her shut-up-it’s-my-piece-we-do-as-I-say attitude was necessary to drive the project to completion, several volunteers left, vowing never to work with her again.

From Washington Post

He said he wanted to move away from a "muscly male lead character", instead making his hero a "hard as nails" teenage girl who was "witty and a bit daft but headstrong like most of us were when we were that age".

From BBC

Related Words

• decisive
• dogged
• purposeful
• resolute
• resolved
• serious
• single-minded
• steadfast
• strong-willed
• stubborn
• tenacious