tough

Strong and resilient; sturdy.

The tent, made of tough canvas, held up to many abuses.

Difficult to cut or chew.

To soften a tough cut of meat, the recipe suggested simmering it for hours.

Rugged or physically hardy.

Only a tough species will survive in the desert.

But before you quit turkey hunting and take up model-train collecting, let me give you the good news: you can score on tough turkeys. In fact, you can kill the toughest turkey in the woods.

Stubborn or persistent; capable of stubbornness or persistence.

He had a reputation as a tough negotiator.

Harsh or severe.

Used to indicate lack of sympathy

If you don't like it, tough!

A person who obtains things by force; a thug or bully.

They were doing fine until they encountered a bunch of toughs from the opposition.

One of his best stories was "Barney Oldfield's Race for a Life" (1914), of which there survives only an amusing still, showing poor Mabel Normand chained to the rails by two toughs, the moustached villain threatening her with a sledge-hammer, and an awful sense of that inexorably approaching express!