tough

Meaning

1. Strong and resilient; sturdy.
2. Difficult to cut or chew.
3. Rugged or physically hardy.
4. Stubborn or persistent; capable of stubbornness or persistence.
5. Harsh or severe.
6. Rowdy or rough.
7. Difficult or demanding.
8. Undergoing plastic deformation before breaking.
9. Strict, not lenient.

hard

strong

stallwart

not tender

yob

strong-armer

be hard

be cruel

be strong

get-tough

grow hard

heavy handed

insistent

strongheaded

stubborn person

bug-eaten

hard to deal with

be robust

beardown

troublous

be able to stand up to

be able to take

very difficult to endure

be doughty

ungentle

resist without yielding

unwieldy

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/tʌf/

From Middle English tough, towgh, tou, toȝ, from Old English tōh (“tough, tenacious, holding fast together; pliant; sticky, glutinous, clammy”), from Proto-West Germanic *tą̄h(ī), from Proto-Germanic *tanhuz (“fitting; clinging; tenacious; tough”), from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”). Cognates Cognate with Scots teuch (“tough”), tūch (“tough”), Dutch taai (“tough”), Low German tage, taag, taë, taa (“tough”), German zäh (“tough”), dialectal German zach (“tough; boring”).