a tough cookie

Meanings

1. 1nounsingularinformal

   A person who stays strong and does not give up when things are difficult.

   Grammar: Used with 'a'; the plural is 'tough cookies'.

   Patterns

   • be a tough cookie
   • a tough cookie to deal with

   My grandmother survived the war and raised five children alone — she's a tough cookie.

   Don't worry about the interview; the manager is a tough cookie, but she's fair.

2. 2nounsingularinformal

   Someone who is hard to persuade, deal with, or get to know well.

   Grammar: Often used after 'be' or 'seem'.

   Patterns

   • a tough cookie to deal with
   • a tough cookie to crack

   The new client is a tough cookie; he questions every price we quote.

   She seems like a tough cookie at first, but she warms up once she trusts you.

Word forms

Common combinations

a pretty tough cookie

For someone so young, she's a pretty tough cookie.

a tough cookie to deal with

That supplier is a tough cookie to deal with when payments are late.

a tough cookie to crack

He won't tell us his plans — he's a tough cookie to crack.

be one tough cookie

You have to be one tough cookie to run a farm in this climate.

Synonyms and how they differ

tough

Used alone as an adjective, it describes the person directly: 'she's tough', whereas 'a tough cookie' is a fixed noun phrase.

hardy

'Hardy' suggests physical strength to survive hardship, not the emotional toughness of a tough cookie.

resilient

More formal and neutral; it stresses recovering quickly rather than being hard to push around.

Opposites

Word family

toughness noun

The quality of being strong and not easily defeated.

toughen verb

To make someone or something stronger or harder.

Commonly confused: a tough cookie or a smart cookie?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “a tough cookie”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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