Tough Definition
- Used to indicate recalcitrance or noncompliance with a complaint or demand.
- To get through despite hardship; endure:
- to remain firm in the face of difficulty, often, specif., in a brazen or defiant way
- to remain firm in the face of (a specified difficulty)
a generation that toughed out the Depression
Other Word Forms of Tough
Noun
Adjective
Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Tough
- that's tough
- tough it out
- tough it out
- tough out
Origin of Tough
-
From Middle English tough, towgh, tou, toȝ, from Old English tōh (“tough, tenacious, holding fast together; pliant; sticky, glutinous, clammy"), from Proto-Germanic *tanhuz (“fitting; clinging; tenacious; tough"), from Proto-Indo-European *denḱ- (“to bite"), nasalised derivative of Proto-Indo-European *deḱ- (“to tear, rip, fray"). Cognate with Scots teuch (“tough"), North Frisian tōch, tÅ«ch (“tough"), Dutch taai (“tough"), Low German tage, taag, taë, taa (“tough"), German zähe, zäh (“tough"), German dialectal zach (“tough").
From Wiktionary
Middle English from Old English tōh
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
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