Tough break
Also, tough luck. A trying or troublesome circumstance, bad luck, as in He got a tough break when he was denied a raise, or Tough luck for the team last night. This idiom uses tough in the sense of “difficult,” a usage dating from the early 1600s. The variant is also used as a sarcastic interjection, as in So you didn’t make straight A’s—tough luck! A slangy variant of this interjection is tough beans, and a ruder version is tough shit. [ ; c. 1900 ]
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tough act to follow
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- Tough customer
noun a difficult person to deal with Examples Teenage girls can be tough customers for their parents. Usage Note slang tough cookie
- Toughen
verb (used with or without object) 1. to make or become tough or tougher. verb 1. to make or become tough or tougher
- Tougher
adjective, tougher, toughest. 1. strong and durable; not easily broken or cut. 2. not brittle or tender. 3. difficult to masticate, as food: a tough steak. 4. of viscous consistency, as liquid or semiliquid matter: tough molasses. 5. capable of great endurance; sturdy; hardy: tough troops. 6. not easily influenced, as a person; unyielding; stubborn: […]