Definition of "tough"

But before you quit turkey hunting and take up model-train collecting, let me give you the good news: you can score on tough turkeys. In fact, you can kill the toughest turkey in the woods.

2010, Brian Lovett, Hunting Tough Turkeys, Stackpole Books, page 3

But let's get back to the tough question about sex before marriage. And this is a tough question. In fact we would rank the question you've both raised as pretty high on our list of tough questions.

1998, Lois Liederman Davitz, Joel Robert Davitz, 20 Tough Questions Teenagers Ask and 20 Tough Answers, Paulist Press, pages 6-7

Anderson: We fought hard to get here. But now the toughest part of our mission begins.Anderson: We've got to drive right through the heart of Reaper-controlled territory, break past their defenses, and get to that beacon.

2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Earth

What Lara faced, in fact, falls right into the pool of light beneath our second lens: making tough choices.

2010, Rushworth M. Kidder, Good Kids, Tough Choices, Wiley (Jossey-Bass), page 96

He was in his early fifties, extensively tattooed, just the sort of tough I wouldn't want to meet alone in a parking lot at night, but right then he was whimpering.

2018, Sandeep Jauhar, Heart: a History, page 54

We shall reminisce on how we toughed it through the winters as they reached the firm, long arm around to give the cold embrace, with ardor seldom loosed till warm winds Marched or Apriled in to soften winter's knuckles -- send rivulets of courage down to dandelions and tulips.

2009, Paul Walsh, You and I and Others, pages 64 - 65

“No,” said Minott, “I've toughed it through the winter, and i want to stay and hear the bluebirds once more.

2011, Henry David Thoreau, Damion Searls, The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1861, page 254

Universal Plant Edibility Test The following sounds like a lot of work—it is!—but that's because it comes from the US Army Survival Manual as republished in 1994 as "a civilian's best guide for toughing it, anyplace in the world...a must for campers, hikers, explorers, pilots, and others whose vocation or avocations require familiarity with the wilderness or out-of-doors..."

2012, Jerry Hopkins -, Extreme Cuisine: The Weird and Wonderful Foods That People Eat