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noun
tough  n.  A person who is tough (7); a ruffian; a thug; as, a cluster of neighborhood toughs hanging out on the corner.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Tough" Quotes from Famous Books



... Polly. 'Would you believe it, our clothes are packed in gunny-sacks! We start in our camping-dresses, with ulsters for the steamer and dusters for the long drive. Then we each have— let me see what we have: a short, tough riding-skirt with a jersey, a bathing-dress, and some gingham morning-gowns to wear about ...
— A Summer in a Canyon: A California Story • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... all your triumphs, do you still hanker for a wayside weed? Alas!—the weed has tough roots that cannot be pulled up to please you! I would make you happy if I could, dear friend!—but in the ...
— Temporal Power • Marie Corelli

... late here—brings the startling news of the assassination of the Crown Prince of Austria. What an unlucky family that has been! Franz Josef must be a tough old gentleman to have stood up against so many shocks. I used to feel so sorry for him when Fate dealt him another blow that would have been a "knock-out" for most people. But he has stood so many, and outlived happier people, that I begin to believe that ...
— A Hilltop on the Marne • Mildred Aldrich

... grow. I see that many people find the world dreary—and, indeed, there must be spaces of dreariness in it for us all—some find it interesting; some surprising; some find it entirely satisfactory. But those who find it satisfactory seem to me, as a rule, to be tough, coarse, healthy natures, who find success attractive and food digestible: who do not trouble their heads very much about other people, but go cheerfully and optimistically on their way, closing their eyes as far as possible to things painful ...
— From a College Window • Arthur Christopher Benson

... business as a West India merchant in New Haven and headed a company of volunteers. Before the end of 1775 he had been made a commissioned colonel by the authorities of Massachusetts, and had marched through a sally-port, capturing the fortress of Ticonderoga, with tough old Ethan Allen at his side and 83 "Green Mountain Boys" behind him. Later, at the siege of Quebec, he behaved with splendid courage. Through great difficulties and hardships he dauntlessly led his band to the high-perched and almost impregnable town. Pages might be filled in telling how toilsome ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 6 of 8 • Various

... are covered with a hard, tough, useless sort of whinstone, which adds considerably to the expense of building on them. Others are well stocked with granite, which the Chinese masons split very neatly into any shape, by driving innumerable wedges into the blocks. The adroitness ...
— Trade and Travel in the Far East - or Recollections of twenty-one years passed in Java, - Singapore, Australia and China. • G. F. Davidson

... shadow of regret in his tone. "That will carry off only a few watchmen and engineers. Mighty tough luck ...
— Ted and the Telephone • Sara Ware Bassett

... as a strong heat would meat otherwise prepared. We have some meats also and bread, and drinks, which taken by men, enable them to fast long after; and some other, that used make the very flesh of men's bodies sensibly more hard and tough, and their strength far greater than ...
— Ideal Commonwealths • Various

... a box kite. The material used may be any tough, light wood, such as spruce, cypress, bass-wood, or cedar. Cut four pieces 42 inches in length, and sixteen pieces 18 inches in length. The cuts show clearly how they are to be put together. Use glue and small brads at every point. The bridle ...
— Camping For Boys • H.W. Gibson

... blade carves the casques of men, My tough lance thrusteth sure, My strength is as the strength of ten, Because my heart is pure. The shattering trumpet shrilleth high, The hard brands shiver on the steel, The splintered spear shafts crack and fly, The horse and rider reel; They reel, they roll in clanging lists, ...
— Graded Poetry: Seventh Year • Various

... not very clear as to the means whereby his next hat is to be obtained,—"deuced slow, brain-belabouring work! How many people do you think I've called upon to-day, eh, Val? Seven-and-thirty! What do you say to that? Seven-and-thirty interviews, and some of them very tough ones. I think that's enough to take the ...
— Birds of Prey • M. E. Braddon

... would have every one of you put your thinking-caps square and tight upon your heads, and keep all your ears about you; for, depend upon it, what I am now going to tell you is so full of hard points and tough knots, that, should you but lose the crossing of a 't,' or even the dotting of an 'i,' thereof, all the rest will be to you as so much hifalutin transcendentalism." (Here Uncle Juvinell took a gigantic swallow ...
— The Farmer Boy, and How He Became Commander-In-Chief • Morrison Heady

... majestically into the distance. Next to him was the imperious Hera, Mother of the Gods. She sat with her hands folded in her lap, as if she were waiting for the end of the world to be announced. There was Mars, tough and hairy-chested, scratching his side with one hand and scowling horribly. His fierce, bearded face looked somehow out of place without the battle helmet that usually topped it. The horned and goat-legged Pan was there, and Vulcan, crippled and ugly ...
— Pagan Passions • Gordon Randall Garrett

... the same way—by an allowance for the portions of the rations not consumed by the patients—and is expended in articles adapted to diet for the sick. The rations are ample and of good quality, though the salt meat is rather tough occasionally, and the consistency of the hard bread is shot-proof. Company cooks are allowed, and in camp they contrive to furnish quite appetizing meals. Their position is rather difficult to fill, and woe ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol. 6, No. 1, July, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy. • Various

... the sections, remove the tough membrane and seeds. Dispose a layer of orange pulp in bottom of shallow, glass, serving-dish, sprinkle with wine and lemon juice and sugar, strew with cocoanut and a layer of thinly sliced banana. Repeat until all ...
— Fifty-Two Sunday Dinners - A Book of Recipes • Elizabeth O. Hiller

... the history itself the amusing account of Ten Breeches and Tough Breeches. One of the Dutch colonists bought of the Indians for sixty guelders as much land as could be covered by a man's breeches. When the time for measuring came Mr. Ten Breeches was produced, and peeling off one pair of breeches after another, soon produced enough material to surround ...
— Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, • Sherwin Cody

... us were fairly beaten at the sword's point; and we took a battery of twelve guns, which tried to cover their discomfiture; but we conquered only to retire. I have not a word to say against old Wurmser: he is a clear headed, tough-hearted veteran, but these French generals are too young for him. I am quite well, but had a narrow escape; two horses were killed under me, and a grape shot passed ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, No. - 582, Saturday, December 22, 1832 • Various

... Detective Hawke, was a short, thick-set man of about thirty-five. He was clean-shaven. His features were ruddy and heavy. There was a bulldog look about his jaw that proclaimed him to be a tough customer. His rough, brown, Harris-tweed suit and bowler hat gave him the appearance of a prosperous yeoman rather than a successful ...
— The Submarine Hunters - A Story of the Naval Patrol Work in the Great War • Percy F. Westerman

... that his men often rode sixty miles in a day, and that he remembered one ride of ninety miles, which a cowpuncher had made with the same pony in twenty-two hours of straight riding. He had told her that the tough little plains pony could go any distance that its rider was able to "fork" it. She believed that, for the little animal under her had never looked tired when she had ridden him to the ranchhouse at the end of ...
— The Range Boss • Charles Alden Seltzer

... that picturesqueness of the past, which embodied the spirit of the old Hanseatic city, and seemed the expression of the home-side of her history. The sense of this gained strength from such slight study of her annals as they afterwards made, and assisted the digestion of some morsels of tough statistics. In the shadow of those Gothic houses the fact that Hamburg was one of the greatest coffee marts and money marts of the world had a romantic glamour; and the fact that in the four years ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... his reins over his arm, and following Mr. Merrill within the stockade, "I had a tough time getting away ...
— The Border Boys Across the Frontier • Fremont B. Deering

... was a-goin' on till it was over. Old Napoleon couldn't thrash 'em, and it don't stand to reason that the Yanks could. I thought there was some skullduggery. Why, it took the Yanks four years to lick themselves. I got a book at home all about Napoleon. He was a tough cuss." ...
— In the Midst of Alarms • Robert Barr

... smooth like a path, baked as it was by the sun after every rain. At first the Father had tried to grow grass in some parts of his garden, but soon gave it up on account of the constant attention it needed, and disliking the tough wiry grass, native to the region, he trained his plants to cover the ground, letting them spread and wander much at their will. Here was his rest from the many and varied labors in a Nueva California mission; and here he was to be found ...
— Old Mission Stories of California • Charles Franklin Carter

... thy belt of tough, tough felt, The foeman’s number will tell I ween; Beware, I say, of Monk hoods grey ...
— Marsk Stig - a ballad - - - Translator: George Borrow • Thomas J. Wise

... fancy to skin you, whether dead or alive, will have a tough job of it, I reckon," sais I, "it's as tight as the bark ...
— Nature and Human Nature • Thomas Chandler Haliburton

... the sticks must first be tied tightly and firmly together in the centre. A string is then put round the outside. The end of each stick should be notched to hold the string in place. The paper, which should be thin and tough, is now pasted on. A tail of pieces of paper or cloth tied at intervals in a string must be fastened at the bottom to balance the kite in the wind. The length of the tail depends on ...
— Harper's Young People, March 9, 1880 - An Illustrated Weekly • Various

... to do with seemed to cheat us. Our appearance in a shop was a signal for the damaged goods to be brought out immediately. If we bought a lobster, it was full of water. All our meat turned out to be tough, and there was hardly any crust to our loaves. In search of the principle on which joints ought to be roasted, to be roasted enough, and not too much, I myself referred to the Cookery Book, and found it there established as the allowance of a quarter of an hour to every pound, and say a quarter ...
— David Copperfield • Charles Dickens

... shows that his rhetoric had caught an element of power from his early recollections of the independent, hard-headed farmers whom he met when a boy in his father's house. The bodies of these men had become tough and strong in their constant struggle to force scanty harvests from an unfruitful soil, which only persistent toil could compel to yield any thing; and their brains, though forcible and clear, were still not stored with the important ...
— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... answer the purpose—the ball and socket joint—and the Former of the eye has hung it with such a hinge, retaining it in its place partly by the projection of the bones of the face, and partly by the muscles and the optic nerve, which is about as thick as a candlewick, and as tough as leather. Most of you have seen a ship, and know the way the yards are moved, and turned, and squared by ropes and pulleys. The rigging of the eye, though not so large, is fully as curious. There is a tackle, called a muscle, to pull it down when you want to look down; another ...
— Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith - Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity • Robert Patterson

... nitro-cellulose, paraffin, barium, nitrate, and some other ingredients. It is claimed for this powder that it combines hard shooting with safety, great penetration, and moderate strain on the gun. It is hard and tough in grain, and may be loaded like black powder, and subjected to hard friction without breaking into powder, that it is smokeless, and leaves no residue in the gun. The charge for 12 bores is 42 grains by weight, and 1-1/8 oz. or 1-1/16 oz. shot. The powders ...
— Nitro-Explosives: A Practical Treatise • P. Gerald Sanford

... would probably not be equal to a wife before that; the three years might be shortened to two. But to be parted for two years—it was "practically parting," for visits don't amount to anything; "it's tough," said ...
— The Iron Woman • Margaret Deland

... of felling a pine-tree to extend his father's clearing, they found the settler's son, a brawny fellow about Cyrus's age, in buckskin leggings and coon-skin cap, who wielded his axe with arms which were tough and knotted as pine limbs. He bawled to them in the forceful language of the backwoods, which to unaccustomed ears sounded a trifle barbaric, to keep out of the way until his tree ...
— Camp and Trail - A Story of the Maine Woods • Isabel Hornibrook

... Street, I was somewhat shocked at first at his incivility. I had overlooked the fact that my personal appearance (my clothes, etc.) did not merit confidence. However, as soon as I made him know me everything went on all right. I must certainly have looked tough. ...
— Between the Lines - Secret Service Stories Told Fifty Years After • Henry Bascom Smith

... wonder, now, if I come to like living over to Shrewsbury first-rate," she insisted, turning to me with a hopeful, eager look to see if I differed. "You see't won't be so tough for me as if I hadn't always felt it lurking within me to go off some day or 'nother an' see how other folks did things. I do' know but what the Winn gals have laid up somethin' sufficient for us to take a house, with the little mite I've got by me. ...
— A Country Doctor and Selected Stories and Sketches • Sarah Orne Jewett

... tough! Don't waste sympathy on him! If she took him, he would make her a slave within a week. As it is, his passion will ...
— Esther • Henry Adams

... our ankles, and our dresses were whale-boned down the front, with very long bodices. We had wide flat hats trimmed with wreaths of roses and tied under our chins. We wore low necks and short sleeves summer and winter. I was thin but very tough. My Aunt Knodle[2] made long mittens for me out of nankeen beautifully embroidered; they came up to my shoulders, and were sewn on every day to keep me from spoiling my hands. My hair was braided in front and my everyday gingham ...
— The Life of Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson • Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez

... quaestor, Quintus Caepio, the son, it may be presumed, of the general condemned three years before,(8) and like his father a vehement antagonist of the popular party, with a band of devoted partisans dispersed the comitia by violence. But the tough soldiers of Marius, who had flocked in crowds to Rome to vote on this occasion, quickly rallied and dispersed the city bands, and on the voting ground thus reconquered the vote on the Appuleian laws was successfully brought to an end. The scandal ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... wildness yet possesses the spot: the front of the crag, topped by the high citadel-wall, is so grim, and the few tough evergreens that cling to its clefts are torn and twisted by the winter blasts, and the houses are decrepit with age, showing here and there the scars of the frequent fires ...
— A Chance Acquaintance • W. D. Howells

... two men-one tough and strong, a man of thirty, whom toil had made forty, the other old, wrinkled, white-haired and with skin like leather, father and grandfather, doubtless, of the little brats beyond—were eating bread and cheese, and drinking, turn by turn, out of a bottle of wine, which they swallowed in ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... that tough old soldier Charles, first Earl of Monmouth and third Earl of Peterborough, hauled down his flag before the battery of Anastasia Robinson's charms, and made a Countess of his victor, a coronet has dazzled the eyes of many an actress with its rainbow allurement, and has proved the passport ...
— Love Romances of the Aristocracy • Thornton Hall

... tough thicket of willows with a crash. Matcham, pale, but steady and alert, at a sign from Dick ran along the thwarts and leaped ashore; Dick, taking the horse by the bridle, sought to follow, but what with the animal's ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 8 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... encounter Sir Launcelot carried a spear that was wonderfully strong and tough. With it he ran with great fierceness into the very thickest of the press, and before he was checked he struck down five knights with that one spear. And likewise those three knights that were with him did ...
— The Story of the Champions of the Round Table • Howard Pyle

... minute the shore was out of sight, and Natty found himself alone in the black fog, with no guide but the cries for help, which already were becoming fainter. They seemed to come from the direction of Little Bear, and thither Natty rowed. It was a tough pull, and the water was rough enough for the little dory. But Natty had been at home with the oars from babyhood, and his long training and tough sinews stood him in good stead now. Steadily and intrepidly ...
— Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1904 • Lucy Maud Montgomery

... increasing earnestness. "There's them as thinks if they've a book or paper stuck about handy, and them a-poppin' down to read a bit ivery now and then, it shows that cookin's beneath 'em. And then the meat burns or it sogs and gets tough, the potatoes don't get the water poured off of 'em in toime, and things biles over on the stove or don't bile at all, at all, and what does all that show, Moike? Not that they're above cookin', but that they're lackin' in sinse. For a ...
— The Widow O'Callaghan's Boys • Gulielma Zollinger

... bees so long, they had become so accustomed to him, and his skin was so tough and hard, that the bees no more thought of stinging him than they would of stinging a tree or a stone. A swarm of bees had made their hive in a pocket of his old leathern doublet; and when he put on this coat to take one of his long walks in the forest in search of wild bees' nests, ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... True, the deep hollow beneath was quite forsaken. No ladies were there to be seen. Marvelling somewhat at the sudden disappearance, we all descended from our respective perches by the ladders formed of the branches, roots and tough grape vines, and set foot upon the hollow where our dinner had transpired. Looking around at the banks by which we were surrounded, we at length saw the girls emerge from a twisted ravine at the lower part of the hollow scarcely discernible from the foliage with which it was roofed, and ...
— The International Monthly Magazine, Volume 5, No. 1, January, 1852 • Various

... your honour, it's nothin' but the cat.' And so Tom then told him all about the affair, and the Squire was regularly astonished. Just then the bishop of the diocese and the priest of the parish happened to call in, and heard the story; and the bishop and the priest had a tough argument for two hours on the subject; the former swearing she must be a witch; but the priest denying that, and maintaining she was only enchanted; and that part of the argument was afterwards referred to the ...
— Handy Andy, Vol. 2 - A Tale of Irish Life • Samuel Lover

... Byrne of Kelly's gang. Billy's brain was befuddled, so that it took some time for an idea to wriggle its way through, but his courage was all there, and all to the good. Billy was a mucker, a hoodlum, a gangster, a thug, a tough. When he fought, his methods would have brought a flush of shame to the face of His Satanic Majesty. He had hit oftener from behind than from before. He had always taken every advantage of size and weight and numbers that he could call to his assistance. He was an insulter of girls and women. He ...
— The Mucker • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... be a tough customer," he remarked. "Of course you're not interested in what happens in a case after we have caught the criminal. But that often is really only the beginning of the fight. We've got him safely lodged in the Tombs ...
— The Dream Doctor • Arthur B. Reeve

... selling for $6 per pound, and all other things in proportion. A negro (for his master) asked me, to-day, $40 for an old, tough turkey gobbler. I ...
— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... is going along," said Jesse. "He went over with the first engineer party, so he knows about all the bad places. We certainly had muskeg enough yesterday and the day before. If it's any worse ahead than it is behind it's going to be pretty tough." ...
— The Young Alaskans in the Rockies • Emerson Hough

... in the little hamlet of Berga. We drove into the yard, and while sleds and horses were being changed, partook of some boiled milk and tough rye-bread, the only things to be had, but both good of their kind. The travellers' room was carpeted and comfortable, and the people seemed poor only because of their few wants. Our new sleds were worse than the former, and so were our horses, but ...
— Northern Travel - Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark and Lapland • Bayard Taylor

... dare and do so much. He might be awkward in appearance, he might wear his clothes badly, but the boy at ten years had been a man, doing a man's work and with a man's soul. He had come into the field, no parade soldier, but with a body and mind as tough and enduring as steel, the whole surcharged and heated with a spirit ...
— The Scouts of Stonewall • Joseph A. Altsheler

... constitution, of both body and mind, peculiar to his race, enabled him to endure a greater amount of continuous application than any other man. Indeed, his powers of endurance were quite surprising, and the fibre of his mind was as tough as that of his body. Even upon a quality so valuable as this, however, he never prided himself; for, excepting the boast of race, which was historical and not unjustifiable, he had no pride. He might be a little ...
— Western Characters - or Types of Border Life in the Western States • J. L. McConnel

... to their oars, but Archie felt that they were no longer making headway. The boat was wide and high out of the water; a good sea boat, but very hard to row against the wind. Although the men strained at the oars, till Archie expected to see the tough staves crack under their efforts, the boat did not seem to move. Indeed it appeared to Archie that in the brief space when the oars were out of the water the wind drove her further back than the distance she had gained in the last stroke. He hoped, however, that the squall was merely temporary, ...
— In Freedom's Cause • G. A. Henty

... and "shuffles" amid much howling and more liquidation; on our side a few Spanish laborers quietly sipped their liquor. The Marines of course were "busted." The rest of us scraped up a few odd "Spigoty" dimes. The Spanish bar-tender—who is never the "tough" his American counterpart strives to show himself—but merely a cheery good-fellow—drifted into our conversation, and when we found I had slept in his native village he would have it that we accept a round of Valdepenas. Which must have been potent, for it moved "Scotty" to ...
— Zone Policeman 88 - A Close Range Study of the Panama Canal and its Workers • Harry A. Franck

... you," cried Eudocia; "you must go or you must die." But sad, O, sad the sundering of two hearts who long and weep; Rent the oak's tough, knitted fibre by the lightning from on high; But the hearts will cling the closer that ...
— Stories in Verse • Henry Abbey

... thought of Violet's bewilderment about me, and in the morning I scrawled a note to her, telling her where I was, and asking her to send me word that she had received my message. I was more damaged than I had fancied, and the mere writing of the letter with my injured hand was a tough task. The messenger I despatched knew Scarfell House, and told me that it had been bought by General Sir Arthur Rollinson a dozen years ago, but had lately been very rarely used, though an old house-keeper and a general servant were always left in charge of the place. The man came back ...
— In Direst Peril • David Christie Murray

... economies. A poor educational system, in particular, has been an obstacle to greater productivity and growth. Portugal has been increasingly overshadowed by lower-cost producers in Central Europe and Asia as a target for foreign direct investment. The coalition government faces tough choices in its attempts to boost Portugal's economic competitiveness and to keep the budget deficit within ...
— The 2003 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency

... ravine below us lay hundreds of killed and wounded Rebels, groaning and crying aloud for water and for help. We did do what we could for those right around us—but it was so dark, and so many shell bursting and bullets flying around that a fellow could not get about much. I tell you it was pretty tough next morning to go along to the different companies of our regiment and hear who were among the killed and wounded, and to see the long row of graves that were being dug to bury our comrades and our officers. There was the Captain of Company E, Nelson ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy

... have been growing, too, but it was less noticeable in them than in him. Not only was he increasing in size and weight, but he was storing up strength and strenuousness for the work that lay before him. It would take much muscle to force those long yellow teeth of his through the hard, tough flesh of the maple or the birch or the poplar. It would take vigor and push and enterprise to roll the heavy billets of wood over the grass-tufts to the edge of the water. And, most of all, it would take strength and nerve and determination to tear himself away from a steel ...
— Forest Neighbors - Life Stories of Wild Animals • William Davenport Hulbert

... Tennessee, Louisiana, Men of many States and races, Bringing wives and children with them, Followed up the wooded valleys, Spread across the rolling prairies, Raising homes and reaping harvests. Rude the toil that tried their patience, Fierce the fights that proved their courage, Rough the stone and tough the timber Out of which they built their order! Yet they never failed nor faltered, And the instinct of their swarming Made them one and kept them working, Till their toil was crowned with triumph, And the country of the Tejas Was ...
— The Poems of Henry Van Dyke • Henry Van Dyke

... hate, he thought. Love is hard, and because it is, the tough humans who can't achieve it and have the patience to manipulate it must scorn it. The truly weak ones, they're incapable of the stern and brutal self-discipline required of one who ...
— Cubs of the Wolf • Raymond F. Jones

... very tough and very fishy: we must try for those when we can get nothing better. Now that we have got in the seeds and potatoes, we must all set to to-morrow morning to fell and carry the timber. I think Mr. Seagrave had better use the axe with me; and you and Juno ...
— Masterman Ready • Captain Marryat

... letters are not quite In that style epistolary, which our fathers called "polite"? 'Tis a little too meticulous—in you—and rather late, After giving Mr. GLADSTONE such a wholesome slashing "slate." Take heart of grace, dear DICEY, and don't let Sir WILLIAM's "point" In your tough (if tasteless) armour find a vulnerable joint. "Old Timbertoes" won't trouble, Sir, to wish that you were dead, And his taste (not point) forbids him to call you ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 101. October 10, 1891 • Various

... the point, and I make these as I need them, and harden simply by holding the wire in a flame till red hot, and then dash into an apple, potato, soap, or pure rubber. Which is the best of these I have as yet been unable to determine, so I use either as the most handy. Take a good, tough and small pointed graver and turn a slight center in the end of arbor I am to drill, and then by giving my lathe a back and forward motion, I begin to drill, and by the sense of feeling I can tell whether my drill is cutting or not, and if ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888 • Various

... caused by inflammation of the membrane of the nasal cavities and air passages, which is followed by ulceration, when nature, in order to shelter this delicate tissue, and protect the olfactory nerves, throws a tough membrane over ...
— Intestinal Ills • Alcinous Burton Jamison

... with girl. "Tough" blows cigar smoke in Blinker's face. Florence tactfully prevents a "scrap." She can't afford to have cavalier ...
— Writing the Photoplay • J. Berg Esenwein and Arthur Leeds

... half a pint of water to a pound of Sugar, and so boil it to a Candy height, then put the pulp into hot sugar, with the pap of a roasted apple. In like manner you must put roasted apples to make Past Royal of it, or else it will be tough in ...
— A Queens Delight • Anonymous

... utmost difficulty, calling for the greatest possible exercise of physical toil, strength, patience, and perseverance, but it was a work of years and generations. The axe, swung by muscular arms, could, one by one, fell the trees. There was no machinery to aid in extracting the tough roots, equal, often, in size and spread, to the branches. The practice was to level by the axe a portion of the forest, managing so as to have the trees fall inward, early in the season. After the summer had passed, and ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham

... you're going to try it for at least a year. You'll be treated white. But you'll need to work for your grub like other folks, and if you don't feel like working you won't eat. We're fifty-three degrees north here, and our ways are the tough ways of the tough country we live in. There's no sort of mercy in this country. Bat, here, is going to see you on your trip, and, if you take my advice, you won't rile Bat. He's got it in him, and in his hands, to make things darn ...
— The Man in the Twilight • Ridgwell Cullum

... informant assented. "More'n enough to kill most men. But the Fromes are tough. Ethan'll likely touch ...
— Ethan Frome • Edith Wharton

... which was constructed before the first trip across the island, had been through some tough places, and the wheels and axles were in bad condition. These needed replacing, and that was a task which would occupy ...
— The Wonder Island Boys: The Tribesmen • Roger Finlay

... so strange; it seemed as if her father must both get down with her from the carriage and come to meet her from the house. Her glance involuntarily took in the familiar masses and details; the patches of short tough grass mixed with decaying chips and small weeds underfoot, and the spacious June sky overhead; the fine network and blisters of the cracking and warping white paint on the clapboarding, and the hills ...
— Annie Kilburn - A Novel • W. D. Howells

... woke. Later in the day she met her neighbour, who complained of a pain in the arm, just where the farmer's wife seized it in her dream. The place mortified and the poor lady died. To return to Montezuma. An honest labourer was brought before him, who made this very tough statement. He had been carried by an eagle into a cave, where he saw a man in splendid dress sleeping heavily. Beside him stood a burning stick of incense such as the Aztecs used. A voice announced that this sleeper was ...
— Cock Lane and Common-Sense • Andrew Lang

... certainly not be rank and luxurious, because there is not enough sunlight or heat for that; nor will it be gnarled and tough, but more likely spongy and cactus-like. The weak gravity will oppose but a mild resistance to the activity and climbing propensities of vegetable sap, however, which is likely to result in very tall, slender trees. The forces that lie hidden in an acorn should ...
— Pharaoh's Broker - Being the Very Remarkable Experiences in Another World of Isidor Werner • Ellsworth Douglass

... the middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right nick of time, for the especial ...
— A Christmas Carol • Charles Dickens

... I have said, thou dost not gather, worthy reader, that Peter Stuyvesant was a tough, sturdy, valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leather-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited old governor, either I have written to but little purpose, or thou art very dull at ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I • Various

... the soldiers, "it will be pretty tough if Props' rag baby gets scalped, that's a fact. Come on! Shack along, boys! They are looking for ...
— Six Little Bunkers at Cowboy Jack's • Laura Lee Hope

... when they're workin'. This here's a play-back recorder they had over in Recreation. Some guys trained it to switch frequencies—speed-up and slow-down stuff. They laughed themselves sick! There used to be a tough guy over there,—a staff sergeant, he was—that gave lectures on military morals in a deep bass voice. He was proud of that bull voice of his. He used it frequently. So they taped him, and Al here—" the name ...
— The Machine That Saved The World • William Fitzgerald Jenkins

... to reason. I perceived by his talk that the Court had resumed the design of besieging Paris; and to be the more satisfied of it I told him that the Cardinal might easily be disappointed in his measures, and that he would find Paris to be a very tough morsel. ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... the "vice districts" he brightly expressed it, "Those are things that no decent man monkeys with. Besides, smatter fact, I'll tell you confidentially: it's a protection to our daughters and to decent women to have a district where tough nuts can raise cain. Keeps 'em away ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis

... place in her time can record with accuracy the daily disputes which used to take place between mother and son; until the latter, from habits of intoxication, falling into a state of almost imbecility, was tended by his tough old parent as a baby almost, and would cry if deprived of ...
— Barry Lyndon • William Makepeace Thackeray

... the forest, where he came suddenly face to face with a bear. Princes have their hunter ambition as well as other men; and, in hopes of tailing a trophy, this one attacked the bear with his boar-spear. But the thrust that might have penetrated the flesh of a wild boar, had no effect upon the tough thick hide of Bruin. It only irritated him; and as the brown bear will often do, he sprang savagely upon his assailant, and with his huge paw gave the prince such a "pat" upon the shoulder, as not only sent the spear shivering from his ...
— Bruin - The Grand Bear Hunt • Mayne Reid

... The tough frame of the manufacturer might have resisted for many more years, in spite of his almost white hair. But the desire for death, though it was working almost unconsciously in him, soon found its way out, and made an end to the ugly tragi-comedy. One ...
— The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries - Masterpieces of German Literature Vol. 19 • Various

... little from an old soldier like me in favour of battles in sport, when they are compared with battles in earnest; and yet, by my faith, I wish Will Shakespeare no harm. He is a stout man at quarter-staff, and single falchion, though, as I am told, a halting fellow; and he stood, they say, a tough fight with the rangers of old Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecot, when he broke his deer-park and kissed his ...
— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott

... covered his left shoulder, fastened beneath his right arm in such a manner as to leave the arm free and unobstructed, and then hung loosely behind him, almost touching the ground as he sat upon his horse. The animal was a rough looking little pony, that bore evidence of being both tough and fleet. ...
— The Young Trail Hunters • Samuel Woodworth Cozzens

... the rind is thick and tough, and cannot be easily impressed with the finger, it is old; when fresh, it will look cool and smooth, and only corn-fed pork is good; swill or still-fed pork is unfit to cure. Fresh pork is in season ...
— The Whitehouse Cookbook (1887) - The Whole Comprising A Comprehensive Cyclopedia Of Information For - The Home • Mrs. F.L. Gillette

... that wanted to git Lyddy himself, used to call 'em cup an' sasser, 'There they be,' he'd say, when he stood outside the meetin'-house door an' they drove up; 'there comes cup an' sasser.' Lyddy was a little mite of a thing, with great black eyes; an' if Josh hadn't been as tough as tripe, he'd ha' got all wore out waitin' on her. He even washed the potaters for her, made the fires, an' lugged water. Scairt to death if she was sick! She used to have sick headaches, an' one day he stopped ...
— Meadow Grass - Tales of New England Life • Alice Brown

... reins from the young willow, and led the horse to the stone at the entrance. Then he threw his coat over the dampened saddle and lifted Betty upon it. "Pooh! I'm as tough as a pine knot." He scoffed at her protests. "There, sit steady; I'd better hold you on, ...
— The Battle Ground • Ellen Glasgow

... whose appearance was the most beautiful. For a time Hubbard and I would claim the distinction each for himself, but it usually ended by our conceding the distinction to George. As a matter of fact, with our unkempt hair and beards and our rags, we now formed as tough looking a party of tramps as ever "came down the pike." That night in camp I cut up my canvas leggings and used pieces of the canvas to rebottom my moccasins, sewing it on ...
— The Lure of the Labrador Wild • Dillon Wallace

... we'll have tough steaks," observed he grimly. Later on he carved several fine steaks from the turtle and cleaned the upper shell carefully, wisely concluding to retain it for the usefulness it was sure to afford sooner ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon

... which these vessels are constructed, is made by splitting a tree, with the grain, into as many thin pieces us they can. They first fell the tree with a kind of hatchet, or adze, made of a tough greenish kind of stone, very dexterously fitted into a handle; it is then cut into such lengths as are required for the plank, one end of which is heated till it begins to crack, and then with wedges of hard wood they split it down: Some of these planks are two feet broad, and from fifteen to twenty ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... white-horse, so called, which is obtained from the tapering part of the fish, and also from the thicker portions of his flukes. It is tough with congealed tendons—a wad of muscle—but still contains some oil. After being severed from the whale, the white-horse is first cut into portable oblongs ere going to the mincer. They look much like ...
— Moby Dick; or The Whale • Herman Melville

... goslin'!" he said tenderly. "Daddy hopes there'll be suthin' for him to do not quite so tough as facin' March sou'-westers; but then, who kin tell? He's a ...
— Sara, a Princess • Fannie E. Newberry

... was about as tough a job as I ever tackled. Old Hickory still has his neck feathers ruffled, and he's chewin' savage on a black cigar when I go in to slip him the soothin' syrup. First off I explains elaborate what a sick man Mr. Runyon is, and all about ...
— The House of Torchy • Sewell Ford

... Guy had purchased a team of six good, tough Esquimau dogs, being desirous of taking them to England, and there presenting them to several of his friends who were anxious to possess specimens of those animals. Two of these dogs stood out conspicuous from their fellows, not only in regard ...
— The World of Ice • Robert Michael Ballantyne

... former, he hung out to dry two and sometimes four hours. The mids designated him "The Martinet." The second lieutenant was an elderly man, something of the old school, and not very polished, fond of spinning a tough yarn in the middle watch if the weather was fine, a fidgetty, practical sailor with a kind heart. He informed us he was born on board the Quebec, that his father was gunner of her when she blew up in the action with the French frigate Surveillante, when all on board except fourteen of ...
— A Sailor of King George • Frederick Hoffman

... up after tea, one night, and Ellen set to work with her mother to pick out every one's bill. There might be about eight customers who had Christmas bills; but many an accountant in a London shop would think eight hundred a less tough business than did the King family these eight; especially as there was a debtor and creditor account with four, and coals, butcher's meat, and shoes for man and horse, had to be set against bread, tea, ...
— Friarswood Post-Office • Charlotte M. Yonge

... I'll get another at the office. It isn't likely that you will ever need to use a weapon in the forest. I have been a ranger for years and have never yet drawn one, but I never travel without one. You'll meet some pretty tough characters in the forest and sometime your life may depend on having your pistol. My advice is never to patrol without it. But keep it out of sight. Keep your badge out of sight, too. And since you are supposed to be nothing more than fishermen, ...
— The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol - The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol • Lewis E. Theiss

... Colonel was standing. "I am an old man, and had looked forward to ending my days in peace; but willingly will I promise you that the enemy shall march over my dead body before they get within our entrenchments. I served on board the ships of your honoured father, when we had many a tough fight with corsairs, Spaniards, Portingales, and Dutchmen; and I feel sure that I shall not draw my sword in vain when his son commands. Maybe ...
— The Boy who sailed with Blake • W.H.G. Kingston

... growth, has also slowed. The CHUAN government has closely adhered to the economic recovery program prescribed by the IMF. The cooperation afforded Thailand stability in the value of its currency in the second half of 1998 and helped replenish foreign reserves. Tough measures—including passage of adequate bankruptcy and foreclosure legislation as well as privatization of state-owned companies and recapitalization of the financial sector—remain undone. Bangkok is also trying ...
— The 1999 CIA Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.



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