tough
//tʌf//
Forms
- Comparative
- tougher
- Superlative
- toughest
- Plural
- toughs
- present (v1)
- tough
- past (v2)
- toughed
- past participle (v3)
- toughed
- present participle
- toughing
- 3rd person singular
- toughs
Definitions
1.Of a material, strong and resilient; sturdy.
- The tent, made of tough canvas, held up to many abuses.
2.Of food, difficult to cut or chew.
- To soften a tough cut of meat, the recipe suggested simmering it for hours.
3.Of a person or animal, rugged or physically hardy.
- Only a tough species will survive in the desert.
- But before you quit turkey hunting and take up model-train collecting, let me give you the good news: you can score on tough turkeys. In fact, you can kill the toughest turkey in the woods.
4.Of a person, stubborn or persistent; capable of stubbornness or persistence.
- He had a reputation as a tough negotiator.
1.Used to indicate lack of sympathy(slang)
- If you don't like it, tough!
1.A person who obtains things by force; a thug or bully.
- They were doing fine until they encountered a bunch of toughs from the opposition.
- He was in his early fifties, extensively tattooed, just the sort of tough I wouldn't want to meet alone in a parking lot at night, but right then he was whimpering.
1.To endure.
- “No,” said Minott, “I've toughed it through the winter, and i want to stay and hear the bluebirds once more.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1088
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Common
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Antonyms
Etymology
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 *tinganą (“to press upon, throng”), from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite”).