51³Ô¹Ï

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tough love

noun

  1. a mixture of toughness and warmth used in a relationship, especially with an adolescent.


tough love

noun

  1. the practice of taking a stern attitude towards a relative or friend suffering from an addiction, etc, to help the addict overcome the problem
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged†2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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51³Ô¹Ï History and Origins

Origin of tough love1

First recorded in 1977; after Toughlove, a network of support groups
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

She served as a judge on “Drag Race Philippines†since its premiere in 2022, tapping into her own experiences to offer competitors tough love and constructive criticism in English and Tagalog.

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Ian, a young man from D.C., told me a story that illustrated the vision of tough love that was the bedrock of these relationships.

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Little surprise, then, that given the choice between something and nothing, more and more young men all over America are rolling the dice on tough love.

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The 50-year-old's refusal to embrace tough love and simply embrace was rewarded with a 3-0 victory inspired by the brilliance of Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr, but which was also a pitch-perfect team display from back to front.

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This past week Trump’s army of talking heads and Twitter commandos has pushed his “no pain, no gain†theory like it was the Sermon on the Mount, all while insisting this was the economic tough love America needed.

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tough it outtough-minded