TOUGH BREAK Definition & Meaning

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tough break

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, tough luck . A trying or troublesome circumstance, bad luck, as in He got a tough break when he was denied a raise , or Tough luck for the team last night . This idiom uses tough in the sense of “difficult,” a usage dating from the early 1600s. The variant is also used as a sarcastic interjection, as in So you didn't make straight A's—tough luck! A slangy variant of this interjection is tough beans , and a ruder version is tough shit . [ Colloquial ; c. 1900]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“It still is 100% their responsibility to provide power and gas. … If they lose money doing it, tough break,” said Cruikshank, who will be at the meeting.

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Gilbert got a tough break when Jose Miranda hit a swinging bunt that turned into an infield single and loaded the bases.

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“It was a tough break for us, there’s no doubt about it,” Rivers said when asked about Portis’ early departure.

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He credited doctors and nurses for catching what he called a “tough break.”

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“Tough break,” Siraj tells me when we’re in the hall.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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