tuff

From French tuffe, tuf, from Italian tufo, from Latin tōfus. Doublet of tufa.

• IPA^(key): /tʌf/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌf
• Homophone: tough

tuff (countable and uncountable, plural tuffs)

1. (petrology) A light porous rock, now especially a rock composed of compacted volcanic ash varying in size from fine sand to coarse gravel.

   Synonym: tufa

   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 9n:

     This is what makes an ignimbrite; the general term for this kind of volcaniclastic rock is ‘tuff’.

• tufflava

tuff (comparative tuffer, superlative tuffest)

1. Eye dialect spelling of tough.
   • 1980, Joy Wilt Berry, Ernie Hergenroeder, Tuff Stuff: A Children's Book about Trauma‎^[1], Educational Products Division, Word, Inc., →ISBN:

     Tuff Stuff teaches that while life may go smoothly most of the time, ...

   • 2000, Margaret Cavendish, “Preface to the Reader (1655)”, in Sylvia Bowerbank, Sara Mendelson, editors, Paper Bodies‎^[2], →ISBN, page 139:

     … yet never to make us so strong as the strongest of Men, whose Sinnews are tuffer, and Bones stronger, and Joints closer, and Flesh firmer, than ours are …

   • 2003, Ronald Carter, The Routledge Guide to Modern English Writing‎^[3] (Language Arts), Routledge, →ISBN, page 96:

     It was rave reviewed in the Caribbean Times as 'the ruffest, tuffest and the boo-yacka of all modern gangster novels'.

   • 2006, Paige Hemmis, The Tuff Chix Guide to Easy Home Improvement‎^[4], Penguin, →ISBN, page 36:

     TUFF METER

   • 2010 January 20, Robert J. Elisberg, “CES 2020 -- Ohm on the Range”, in Huffington Post‎^[5], retrieved 2012-09-14:

     Its Tuff-n-Tiny USB flash drive is about the size of a thumbnail. … The company insists that the "tuff" part of the name is well-earned for being waterproof, dustproof and you can drive a car over it.

   • 2011, Kristian Pope, Tuff Stuff Professional Wrestling Field Guide: Legend and Lore‎^[6], Krause Publications, →ISBN:

     Tuff Stuff Professional Wrestling

• tuff on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, tuff

• IPA^(key): /tɵf/

Borrowed from English tough. Attested since 1923.

tuff (comparative tuffare, superlative tuffast)

1. (somewhat colloquial) tough

   en tuff uppgift

   a tough task

   en tuff dag

   a tough day

   tuffa förhandlingar

   tough negotiations

   ett tufft beslut

   a tough decision

   spela tuff

   act tough

3. (colloquial) cool; badass (see usage notes)

   Vilken tuff motorcykel!

   What a cool motorcycle!

   Om man ska vara med i ett gatugäng måste man ha ett tufft smeknamn

   If you're going to be in a street gang, you need to have a cool nickname

   göra tuffa tricks på brädan

   pull off some rad tricks on the board

   Fan vad tufft!

   Awesome!

   • 1995, De Lyckliga Kompisarna (lyrics and music), “Allmänt tuff [Generally badass]”, in Sagoland [Fairy tale land]‎^[7]:

     Allmänt tuff. Jocke, han är allmänt tuff, och Krille, han är allmänt tuff. Allmänt tuff. Danne, han är allmänt tuff, och jag är allmänt tuff.

     Generally badass. Jocke, he [redundant in Swedish as well] is generally badass, and Krille, he is generally badass. Generally badass. Danne, he is generally badass, and I am generally badass.

Often with (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) bad boy (or girl) connotations when of a person. The sense of cool has (sometimes tongue-in-cheek) connotations of (somewhat) breaking social norms as well. A motorcycle might be called tuff for example, by association with bikers, "tuff musik" would commonly be something like heavy metal (considered cool and rebellious, "edgy"), and a "tuff frisyr" would be a cool and (slightly) provocative haircut. Sometimes a bit dated (or tongue-in-cheek), for example when describing music.

• tuffing

• cool
• häftig

tuff c

1. (petrology) tuff

• tuff in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• tuff in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• tuff in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)