· someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing

Synonym(s): street_fighter

Hypernym(s): combatant, battler, belligerent, fighter, scrapper

· an aggressive and violent young criminal

Synonym(s): hood, hoodlum, goon, punk, thug, toughie, strong-armer

Hypernym(s): criminal, felon, crook, outlaw, malefactor

· a cruel and brutal fellow

Synonym(s): bully, hooligan, ruffian, roughneck, rowdy, yob, yobo, yobbo

Hypernym(s): attacker, aggressor, assailant, assaulter

· not given to gentleness or sentimentality; "a tough character"

Antonym(s): tender

· very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution; "a rugged competitive examination"; "the rugged conditions of frontier life"; "the competition was tough"; "it's a tough life"; "it was a tough job"

Synonym(s): rugged

· physically toughened; "the tough bottoms of his feet"

Synonym(s): toughened

Antonym(s): tender

· substantially made or constructed; "sturdy steel shelves"; "sturdy canvas"; "a tough all-weather fabric"; "some plastics are as tough as metal"

Synonym(s): sturdy

· violent and lawless; "the more ruffianly element"; "tough street gangs"

Synonym(s): ruffianly

· feeling physical discomfort or pain (`tough' is occasionally used colloquially for `bad'); "my throat feels bad"; "she felt bad all over"; "he was feeling tough after a restless night"

Synonym(s): bad

· resistant to cutting or chewing

Antonym(s): tender

· unfortunate or hard to bear; "had hard luck"; "a tough break"

Synonym(s): hard

· making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe; "a baffling problem"; "I faced the knotty problem of what to have for breakfast"; "a problematic situation at home"

Synonym(s): baffling, elusive, knotty, problematic, problematical