Etimology
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”).
adjective
tough (comparative tougher, superlative toughest)
(of a material) Strong and resilient; sturdy.
(of food) Difficult to cut or chew.
(of a person or animal) Rugged or physically hardy.
(of a person) Stubborn or persistent; capable of stubbornness or persistence.
(of weather, etc.) Harsh or severe.
Rowdy or rough.
(of questions, etc.) Difficult or demanding.
(material science) Undergoing plastic deformation before breaking.
Strict, not lenient.
Examples
The tent, made of tough canvas, held up to many abuses.
To soften a tough cut of meat, the recipe suggested simmering it for hours.
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.
He had a reputation as a tough negotiator.
A bunch of the tough boys from the wrong side of the tracks threatened him.
This is a tough crowd.
But let's get back to the tough question about sex before marriage. And this is a tough question. In fact we would rank the question you've both raised as pretty high on our list of tough questions.
Anderson: We fought hard to get here. But now the toughest part of our mission begins.Anderson: We've got to drive right through the heart of Reaper-controlled territory, break past their defenses, and get to that beacon.
What Lara faced, in fact, falls right into the pool of light beneath our second lens: making tough choices.
tough on crime
interjection
tough
(slang) Used to indicate lack of sympathy
Examples
If you don't like it, tough!
noun
tough (plural toughs)
A person who obtains things by force; a thug or bully.
Examples
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.
verb
tough (third-person singular simple present toughs, present participle toughing, simple past and past participle toughed)
To endure.
To toughen.
Examples
We shall reminisce on how we toughed it through the winters as they reached the firm, long arm around to give the cold embrace, with ardor seldom loosed till warm winds Marched or Apriled in to soften winter's knuckles -- send rivulets of courage down to dandelions and tulips.
“No,” said Minott, “I've toughed it through the winter, and i want to stay and hear the bluebirds once more.
Universal Plant Edibility Test The following sounds like a lot of work—it is!—but that's because it comes from the US Army Survival Manual as republished in 1994 as "a civilian's best guide for toughing it, anyplace in the world...a must for campers, hikers, explorers, pilots, and others whose vocation or avocations require familiarity with the wilderness or out-of-doors..."