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
-
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:
You’re right that standing up all day is tough, even if you’re not lugging boxes to and from the warehouse or climbing ladders and risking your health to help a customer or to restock shelves.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
Businesses such as farmers, home-improvement stores and truckers face a tough choice.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
The picturesque Kenyan island of Lamu, a favourite of celebrities, faces a tough trade-off after becoming the construction site for Africa's latest mega-refinery.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Arizona is a tough out and doesn’t go away, and tight end Trey McBride is a standout, but the team has too many defensive breakdowns.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
That can make it tough to see where you’re going.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
He’s a guy that toughs it out with a smile on his face, and that smile is very disarming to someone else.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 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
But it quickly becomes clear that Happy owes more to the rumpled Marlowe played by Elliott Gould in Robert Altman’s “The Long Goodbye” than to any hard-boiled toughs inhabited by Humphrey Bogart.
From New York Times ● Apr. 19, 2021
Seymour Cassel, an Oscar-nominated character actor who played raconteurs, street toughs and cha-cha-dancing hoodlums and who frequently collaborated with independent filmmakers John Cassavetes and Wes Anderson, died April 7 at a hospital in Los Angeles.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 9, 2019
The officers turned around and saw the toughs moving toward their group of six.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
Williams is part of a rise in entrepreneurship among young Americans, as the entry-level labor market has become tougher to crack.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026
The laws now impose tougher requirements on real-estate development, luxury-goods dealers and virtual asset transactions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026
"I said to the players before the game, 'this is going to be tougher than Portugal'," Bellamy added.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
“Today, we’re creating tougher laws and greater accountability for those who break the law.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
He often wondered if he'd ever look tougher, like them.
From "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Tatiana, the Afro-Caribbean restaurant at New York’s Lincoln Center, is one of the toughest reservations in the city, thanks in part to dishes like tender Wagyu short rib and head-on shrimp drenched in Creole butter.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 20, 2026
In other words, the toughest oaks could help produce the next generation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
He battled Muhammad Ali in 1966 and 1972, and though Chuvalo lost both fights, Ali called him the toughest guy he ever fought.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
However, the AI race and China's advances in the field create "the toughest dilemma" regarding whether or not to slow down AI development, he noted on CBS on Sunday.
From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026
Diamonds are one of the toughest substances on earth, and one of the most coveted.
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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.
