tough luck
3
4.9
- idiom
- /tʌf lʌk/
- Informal
:
mala suerte
- It's tough luck when you miss the bus and have to wait for another one.
That's just part of tough luck.
- That's just part of tough luck.
Examples
-
Well, tough luck, folks; this was for the good of Galaxyland.
Fiction book (1991) -
They wouldn't replace it or anything, just said tough luck, mate.
Blog text (11) -
I'd call that his tough luck.
-
You want to win this war or not, tough luck for Jefferson Davis.
-
If they deleted your post, tough luck, and I'm going to choose to believe they had a reason.
Blog text (11) -
Well, tough luck, because I've got back up.
-
- Tough luck, Mr. Doolittle.
-
If you can't, then tough luck for them; they made a bad business decision.
Blog text (9) -
If they don't, then it is tough luck for them.
Blog text (30) -
Like, hey, if your HOA doesn't let you Airbnb, tough luck, right?
Synonyms
166
1.0
Unlucky events that happen by chance
A phrase showing little or no sympathy for someone's bad luck
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The basic meaning 'bad/unfortunate luck' is directly and compositionally derivable from 'tough' (difficult/harsh) + 'luck' (fortune), so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily infer the phrase refers to misfortune. The only subtlety is pragmatic tone—it can be used dismissively as 'too bad'—which learners might need exposure to, but the core semantic content is transparent.
Etymology
Tough luck comes from a simple image: tough meaning 'hard' and luck meaning chance, so it feels like a hard bit of fortune you cannot change. So people say tough luck to note someone's 'bad luck', often with little sympathy.