tough

Adjective

• making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
  • a baffling problem
    
  • I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast
    
  • a problematic situation at home
    

• unfortunate or hard to bear
  • had hard luck
    
  • a tough break
    

• resistant to cutting or chewing

• feeling physical discomfort or pain (`tough' is occasionally used colloquially for `bad')
  • my throat feels bad
    
  • she felt bad all over
    
  • he was feeling tough after a restless night
    

• violent and lawless
  • the more ruffianly element
    
  • tough street gangs
    

• substantially made or constructed
  • sturdy steel shelves
    
  • sturdy canvas
    
  • a tough all-weather fabric
    
  • some plastics are as tough as metal
    

• physically toughened
  • the tough bottoms of his feet
    

• very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution
  • a rugged competitive examination
    
  • the rugged conditions of frontier life
    
  • the competition was tough
    
  • it's a tough life
    
  • it was a tough job
    

• not given to gentleness or sentimentality
  • a tough character
    

Noun

• a cruel and brutal fellow

• an aggressive and violent young criminal

• someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  baffling , elusive , knotty , problematic , problematical , hard , bad , ruffianly , sturdy , toughened , rugged , bully , hooligan , ruffian , roughneck , rowdy , yob , yobo , yobbo , hood , hoodlum , goon , punk , thug , toughie , strong-armer , street fighter
• Antonyms: 
  tender , untoughened