to acting all tough
1
8.2
- idiom
- Informal
:
hacerse el duro
- Despite acting all tough, she was really scared during the horror movie.
Examples
-
You act all tough, but I know you.
-
He always acts all tough when his friends are around, but he can be quite sensitive.
-
And then, you know, he's trying to act all tough.
-
Look, I know that I act all tough and I talk all tough, but really... it's just a front to protect yourself from your own vulnerability.
-
Don't let him fool you; he's just acting all tough to impress his classmates.
Synonyms
2
8.9
To pretend to be someone you are not to impress others
2
7.0
To act very confident and proud to get attention
To pretend to be tough or street-smart when you are not
Speak or act in a strong, confident way, often bragging
To act too tough or serious in a way that pushes other people away
Antonyms
How Tough
- Offensive
- Informal
1
8.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'pretending to be strong or intimidating' is directly derivable from 'act' (to behave, often pretending) combined with 'tough' (strong/intimidating); the particle 'all' functions as a colloquial intensifier ('completely/very') and does not obscure the compositional meaning. This construction follows common, cross-linguistic patterns of ‘pretend + adjective’ and is likely comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
The phrase acting all tough comes from the picture of an actor on stage: acting is putting on a show and tough is the strong look they give, so it shows someone only putting on a strong look. So it means 'pretending to be strong' to impress others or hide true feelings.