the.com/tough cookie
A person life kept baking at 450 degrees and somehow never burned.
means A person who is resilient, hard to intimidate, and able to withstand hardship or pressure without breaking down.
from Built from 'tough' (Old English 'toh,' meaning strong and resistant to breaking) plus 'cookie' — American slang since the early 20th century for a person, often with a qualifier describing their character, as in 'smart cookie' or 'tough cookie.' The phrase catches on because of the mismatch: a cookie should be fragile, snap under pressure, crumble — so calling someone a tough one plays on the surprise that this particular cookie doesn't break.
- origin era
- US slang, popularized 1940s
- implies
- resilient, unsentimental, hard to rattle
- contrast
- soft exterior expected, gets steel instead
- usage tell
- said with respect, often after a fight