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tough

Pronunciation: /tʌf/

The English word “tough” has 14 meanings listed here.

adjective

  1. Of a material, strong and resilient; sturdy.
  2. Of food, difficult to cut or chew.
  3. Of a person or animal, rugged or physically hardy.
  4. Of a person, stubborn or persistent; capable of stubbornness or persistence.
  5. Of weather, harsh or severe.
  6. Rowdy or rough.
  7. Cool, awesome, great.
  8. Of a question, difficult or demanding.
  9. Undergoing plastic deformation before breaking.
  10. Strict, not lenient.

interjection

  1. Used to indicate lack of sympathy

noun

  1. A person who obtains things by force; a thug or bully.

verb

  1. To endure.
  2. To toughen.

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”). Cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian toai (“tough”), Bavarian…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.