tough break
tough break noun: a situation resulting in misfortune or hardship; an instance of bad luck.
Noun
tough break (uncountable)
- A situation resulting in misfortune or hardship; an instance of bad luck.
- So I close by saying that I might have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for.1998, Cal Ripken, Mike Bryan, The Only Way I Know, Penguin Publishing Group, page 389
- When you pulled that job in Westchester two years ago, I'll admit you got a tough break.2014, Frederick Nebel, Will Murray, Tough as Nails, Head of Zeus, page 30
Interjection
- An interjection of mild or insincere sympathy for someone else's misfortune.
- Tough break, Linda.1966, Charles Dizenzo, A Great Career, Dramatists Play Service, page 16
- My reaction? Tough break, chump.1990, Rickley S. Christian, Alive 2, Campus Life Books, page 120
- Synonyms:
- bad luck, hard cheese, hard lines, hard luck, tough cookies, tough luck, tough shit, tough titties, tough titty, tough toodles
Synonyms of tough break
- bad luck
- hard cheese
- hard lines
- hard luck
- tough cookies
- tough luck
- tough shit
- tough titties
- tough titty
- tough toodles
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Questions about tough break
- What does tough break mean?
- Tough break means a situation resulting in misfortune or hardship; an instance of bad luck.
- What part of speech is tough break?
- Tough break can be a noun or an interjection.
Words near tough break in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tough break (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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