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1. Not given to gentleness or sentimentality
   "a tough character"
    
2. Very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution
   "the competition was tough"; "it's a tough life"; "it was a tough job";
   - rugged
    
3. Physically toughened
   "the tough bottoms of his feet";
   - toughened
    
4. Substantially made or constructed
   "a tough all-weather fabric"; "some plastics are as tough as metal";
   - sturdy
    
5. Violent and lawless
   "tough street gangs";
   - ruffianly
    
6. Feeling physical discomfort or pain ('tough' is occasionally used colloquially for 'bad')
   "he was feeling tough after a restless night";
   - bad
    
7. Resistant to cutting or chewing
    
8. Unfortunate or hard to bear
   "a tough break";
   - hard
    
9. Making great mental demands; hard to comprehend, solve or believe
   "a tough problem";
   - baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical

1. Someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing
   - street fighter
    
2. An aggressive and violent young criminal
   - hood, hoodlum, goon, punk [N. Amer], thug, toughie, strong-armer
    
3. An uncultured, aggressive, rude, noisy troublemaker
   - bully, hooligan, ruffian, roughneck, rowdy, yob [Brit], yobo [Brit], yobbo [Brit], scally [UK], ned [UK]

Sounds like: torturous, tor, toug

Derived forms: toughs, toughest, tougher

See also: bad, callous, calloused, cartilaginous, chewy, coriaceous, difficult, enured, experienced, experient, fibrous, gristly, hard, hard-bitten, hard-boiled, hardened, hempen, inedible, insensitive, inured, leathered, leatherlike, leathery, pugnacious, rubbery, rugged, sinewy, stringy, strong, thickened, tough-minded, tough-skinned, unchewable, uncomfortable, uneatable, unsentimental, violent, weather-beaten

Type of: aggressor, assailant, assailer, assaulter, attacker, battler, belligerent, combatant, criminal, crook, felon, fighter, malefactor, outlaw, scrapper

Antonym: tender

Encyclopedia: Tough Tough, Scotland Tough, Tough Toys for Tough, Tough Boys