tough love

T t

Transcription

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [tuhf luhv]
- /tʌf lʌv/

- US Pronunciation
- US IPA
- [tuhf luhv]
- /tʌf lʌv/

Definitions of tough love words

noun tough love a mixture of toughness and warmth used in a relationship, especially with an adolescent. 1
uncountable noun tough love Tough love is the practice of being very strict with a relative or friend who has an addiction or other problem in order to help them overcome the problem. 0
noun tough love the practice of taking a stern attitude towards a relative or friend suffering from an addiction, etc, to help the addict overcome the problem 0
noun tough love a disciplinary technique, as for a young person or a loved one, in which a seemingly harsh or unfeeling course of action is chosen deliberately over one demonstrating the tenderness or forbearance instinctively felt 0

See all 4 definitions of tough love

Information block about the term

Origin of tough love

First appearance:

before 1977

One of the 1% newest English words

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

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Tough love

noun

adjective

verb

adverb

pronoun

preposition

conjunction

determiner

exclamation

Full grammatical hierarchy of Tough love

tough love popularity

A pretty common term. Usually people know it’s meaning, but prefer to use a more spread out synonym. About 40% of English native speakers know the meaning and use word.

According to our data about 61% of words is more used. This is a rare but used term. It occurs in the pages of specialized literature and in the speech of educated people.

tough love usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer