tough cookie
tough cookie noun: a person who can endure physical or mental hardship; a hardened, strong-willed person.
Noun
tough cookie (plural tough cookies)
- A person who can endure physical or mental hardship; a hardened, strong-willed person.
- An austere, hard-lining rightist, who lives alone, Ioannidis is described by one Washington military official as "a real tough cookie."1973 December 10, “Ioannidis: Power in the Wings”, in Time
- Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history
Of breaking little hearts like the one in me1980, Eddie Schwartz, “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”, in Crimes of Passion, performed by Pat Benatar
- A hardy, resilient animal or plant.
- Boxwood is a pretty tough cookie. Wind, cold, wet, exhaust fumes, and industrial pollution are of no consequence.2001, Sybille Engels, Basic Gardening: Everything You Need to Make Your Garden Grow, Silverback Books, →ISBN, page 134
- Though its name is Cupcake, Tristan Carter's cat proved it was one tough cookie surviving on its own since Hurricane Katrina forced Carter to abandon it […]2006 March 13, “Katrina Cat”, in Jet
- Something troublesome or difficult to handle.
- The pup that struggles constantly might be one tough cookie when it comes to training; […]2002, Steven Smith, editor, Encyclopedia of North American Sporting Dogs, Willow Creek Press, →ISBN, page 63
tough cookie meaning in Tamil
tough cookie in Tamil
- எதையும் தாங்கும் இதயம் கொண்டவர், வலியர், நெஞ்சுரம் கொண்டவர், உறுதியான, கடினமான மரம், விலங்கு முதலியன
Examples of tough cookie in a sentence
- She was racing with a broken thumb — a tough cookie, just like me.2002, Picabo Street, Dana White, Picabo: Nothing to Hide, Contemporary Books, →ISBN, page 6:
- "Although she's a small-framed woman, we all believed she came through the Marines and maybe ate nails for breakfast because she's one tough cookie," said Horace Taylor […]2005 October 3, Liz Austin, “Miers had stormy tenure at Texas Lottery Commission”, in Spokesman-Review:
- “He was a really good tough cookie,” Trump said.2026 March 20, Andrew Pulver, “Chuck Norris, prolific action star and martial arts champion, dies aged 86”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Synonyms of tough cookie
Forms of tough cookie
| plural | tough cookies |
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Questions about tough cookie
- What does tough cookie mean?
- Tough cookie means a person who can endure physical or mental hardship; a hardened, strong-willed person.
- What is tough cookie in Tamil?
- Tough cookie in Tamil is எதையும் தாங்கும் இதயம் கொண்டவர், வலியர், நெஞ்சுரம் கொண்டவர். See Tough cookie meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use tough cookie in a sentence?
- She was racing with a broken thumb — a tough cookie, just like me.
- What part of speech is tough cookie?
- Tough cookie is a noun.
- What is the plural of tough cookie?
- The plural of tough cookie is tough cookies.
Words near tough cookie in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: tough cookie (page history and authors); tough cookie (Tamil Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “tough cookie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tough_cookie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.