tough break
19
5.8
- noun
- Informal
:
mala suerte
- "This child has had a few tough breaks," she said, looking into his eyes.
- tough break for a kid
- tough break, man
- just a tough break
But some are like, oh, tough break.
- But some are like, oh, tough break.
- But now Cawthorne is on his way out, which is a tough break.
Examples
-
After missing the job opportunity, she sighed, acknowledging it as a tough break.
-
Plus, we all have our share of tough breaks.
-
I think it's a tough break for the guy.
-
Hey, that is a tough break at this point in the match.
-
That was a tough break.
-
Another tough break for me.
Fiction book (1990) -
That's a tough break, Bob.
-
I mean, she's had some pretty tough breaks.
-
It's a tough break.
-
Tough break for Lou.
Fiction book (2002)
Synonyms
148
3.6
A problem that delays progress or makes things worse
3
4.9
A short comment that says whether you feel sorry for someone's bad luck
1
3.9
A difficult time that is hard to get through
Antonyms
How Serious
915
3.0
- Informal
19
5.8
75
3.7
148
3.6
- Specialized
3
5.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is formed compositionally (adjective + noun): if a learner knows 'break' in the sense of 'a stroke of luck' and 'tough' meaning 'difficult/unfortunate', they can infer that 'tough break' refers to an unlucky setback. However this inference depends on knowing the non-literal sense of 'break' (as luck) rather than the literal 'to break', so the connection is not fully transparent to learners without that sense.
Etymology
The idiom tough break may come from the picture of a break that is hard to fix, like a badly broken bone or a ruined chance. The word tough shows how hard it is to recover, so the phrase means 'an unlucky setback'.