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

1. An aggressive and violent young criminal
   "The tough was arrested for vandalizing cars in the neighbourhood";
   - hood [slang], hoodlum, goon [informal], punk [N. Amer, informal], thug, toughie [informal], strong-armer
    
2. An uncultured, aggressive, rude, noisy troublemaker
   "The toughs caused chaos at the football match";
   - bully, hooligan, ruffian, roughneck [informal], rowdy, yob [Brit, informal], yobo [Brit, informal], yobbo [Brit, informal], scally [UK, informal], ned [UK, informal]
    
3. Someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing
   "The tough's unorthodox style caught the professional boxer off guard";
   - street fighter

1. Withstand a difficulty or hardship
   "The hikers toughed out the storm in their tent"

Sounds like: torturous, tor, toug

Derived forms: toughest, toughing, tougher, toughed, toughs

See also: bad, callous, calloused, cartilaginous, chewy, coriaceous, difficult, enured, experienced, experient [archaic], fibrous, gristly, hard, hard-bitten, hard-boiled, hardened, hempen, inedible, insensitive, inured, leathered, leatherlike, leathery, pugnacious, 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, crim [Brit, informal], criminal, crook [informal], felon, fighter, malefactor [formal], outlaw, scrapper

Antonym: tender

Encyclopedia: Tough, Scotland