Textual thesaurus for "tough"

(adj) bad

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

(adj) sturdy

substantially made or constructed

sturdy steel shelves; sturdy canvas; a tough all-weather fabric; some plastics are as tough as metal

(adj) elusive, baffling, problematic, problematical, knotty

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

(adj) rugged

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

(adj) hard

unfortunate or hard to bear

had hard luck; a tough break

(adj) toughened

physically toughened

the tough bottoms of his feet

(adj) ruffianly

violent and lawless

the more ruffianly element; tough street gangs

(noun) bully, roughneck, rowdy, ruffian, yobbo, yobo, yob, hooligan

a cruel and brutal fellow

(noun) goon, hood, hoodlum, strong-armer, toughie, thug, punk

an aggressive and violent young criminal

(noun) street fighter

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