TOUGH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does tough mean? 

• TOUGH (noun)
  The noun TOUGH has 3 senses:

1. someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing

2. an aggressive and violent young criminal

3. a cruel and brutal fellow

  Familiarity information: TOUGH used as a noun is uncommon.

• TOUGH (adjective)
  The adjective TOUGH has 9 senses:

1. not given to gentleness or sentimentality

2. very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution

3. physically toughened

4. substantially made or constructed

5. violent and lawless

6. feeling physical discomfort or pain ('tough' is occasionally used colloquially for 'bad')

7. resistant to cutting or chewing

8. unfortunate or hard to bear

9. making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe

  Familiarity information: TOUGH used as an adjective is familiar.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TOUGH (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

street fighter; tough

Hypernyms ("tough" is a kind of...):

battler; belligerent; combatant; fighter; scrapper (someone who fights (or is fighting))

Sense 2

Meaning:

An aggressive and violent young criminal

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

goon; hood; hoodlum; punk; strong-armer; thug; tough; toughie

Hypernyms ("tough" is a kind of...):

criminal; crook; felon; malefactor; outlaw (someone who has committed a crime or has been legally convicted of a crime)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tough"):

bully (a hired thug)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A cruel and brutal fellow

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bully; hooligan; roughneck; rowdy; ruffian; tough; yob; yobbo; yobo

Hypernyms ("tough" is a kind of...):

aggressor; assailant; assaulter; attacker (someone who attacks)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "tough"):

bullyboy (a swaggering tough; usually one acting as an agent of a political faction)

muscle; muscleman (a bully employed as a thug or bodyguard)

skin; skinhead (a member of any of several British or American groups consisting predominantly of young people who shave their heads; some engage in white supremacist and anti-immigrant activities and this leads to the perception that all skinheads are racist and violent)

plug-ugly; tough guy (someone who bullies weaker people)

• TOUGH (adjective)

Comparative: tougher   
Superlative: toughest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not given to gentleness or sentimentality

Context example:

a tough character

Similar:

hard-bitten; hard-boiled; pugnacious (tough and callous by virtue of experience)

tough-minded; unsentimental (facing facts or difficulties realistically and with determination)

Also:

hard (dispassionate)

insensitive (deficient in human sensibility; not mentally or morally sensitive)

Antonym:

tender (given to sympathy or gentleness or sentimentality)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution

Synonyms:

rugged; tough

Context example:

it was a tough job

Similar:

difficult; hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)

Derivation:

toughness (impressive difficulty)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Physically toughened

Synonyms:

tough; toughened

Context example:

the tough bottoms of his feet

Similar:

callous; calloused; thickened (having calluses; having skin made tough and thick through wear)

enured; hardened; inured (made tough by habitual exposure)

weather-beaten (tanned and coarsened from being outdoors)

Also:

rugged (sturdy and strong in constitution or construction; enduring)

experienced; experient (having experience; having knowledge or skill from observation or participation)

strong (having strength or power greater than average or expected)

Antonym:

tender (physically untoughened)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Substantially made or constructed

Synonyms:

sturdy; tough

Context example:

some plastics are as tough as metal

Similar:

rugged (sturdy and strong in constitution or construction; enduring)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Violent and lawless

Synonyms:

ruffianly; tough

Context example:

tough street gangs

Similar:

violent (acting with or marked by or resulting from great force or energy or emotional intensity)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Feeling physical discomfort or pain ('tough' is occasionally used colloquially for 'bad')

Synonyms:

bad; tough

Context example:

he was feeling tough after a restless night

Similar:

uncomfortable (providing or experiencing physical discomfort)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Resistant to cutting or chewing

Similar:

chewy (requiring much chewing)

tough-skinned (having a relatively tough outer covering)

fibrous; hempen (having or resembling fibers especially fibers used in making cordage such as those of jute)

fibrous; sinewy; stringy; unchewable ((of meat) full of sinews; especially impossible to chew)

coriaceous; leathered; leatherlike; leathery (resembling or made to resemble leather; tough but pliable)

cartilaginous; gristly; rubbery (difficult to chew)

Also:

inedible; uneatable (not suitable for food)

Antonym:

tender (easy to cut or chew)

Derivation:

toughness (impressive difficulty)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Unfortunate or hard to bear

Synonyms:

hard; tough

Context example:

a tough break

Similar:

bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)

Sense 9

Meaning:

Making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe

Synonyms:

baffling; elusive; knotty; problematic; problematical; tough

Context example:

a problematic situation at home

Similar:

difficult; hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)

Derivation:

toughness (impressive difficulty)

 Context examples 

Why, he was turned five-and-fifty when he challenged and beat, after fifty minutes of it, Jack Thornhill, who was tough enough to take it out of many a youngster.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You’ve been learning the value of money, and for a Sagittarius, that has been a tough lesson.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Thank you, sir, replied Uriah, glancing in the new direction of this voice, it was tougher yesterday than I could wish; but it's my duty to bear.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

If you are having a tough time, talk to your doctor.

(Limb Loss, NIH)

A soft tissue tumor that begins in a tendon (tough, fibrous, cord-like tissue that connects muscle to bone or to another structure).

(Clear cell sarcoma of soft tissue, NCI Dictionary)

Cartilage is the tough but flexible tissue that covers the ends of your bones at a joint.

(Cartilage Disorders, NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)

The ecologists discovered that grasslands can be surprisingly tough.

(Environmental change is triggering an identity switch in grasslands, National Science Foundation)

“He has been ill ever since he did not eat any of the pheasant today. He fancied it tough, sent away his plate, and has been suffering ever since”.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The feet are furry and have tough pads.

(Alaskan Malamute, NCI Thesaurus)

The very large, bear-like feet are fully covered with hair and have tough, black, thick pads.

(Black Russian Terrier, NCI Thesaurus)