tough-minded

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of tough-minded Everyone in the studio nods along to Paco’s tough-minded flexes and mafioso folktales. Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 11 Apr. 2025 There are no Cooper Flagg’s on St. John’s, but there are all these tough-minded and talented players so much fun to watch, RJ Luis Jr. and Zuby Ejiofor and Kadary Richmond and Deivon Smith, who powered through the Big East Tournament with a shoulder injury. Mike Lupica, New York Daily News, 18 Mar. 2025 Incoming players must fit his culture, be tough-minded and play with maximum effort and a fierce play demeanor. Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 11 Mar. 2025 James is quite tough-minded about the limits of radical chic. Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 Feb. 2025 The Friday night announcement was criticized by some journalists as a way to score political points and penalize tough-minded news outlets. Brian Stelter, CNN, 7 Feb. 2025 Johnson is viewed as innovative, creative and somewhat tough-minded in his coaching style. Steve Silverman, Forbes, 21 Jan. 2025 The Heat are always a tough-minded unit and it's reflected in their performance. David Faris, Newsweek, 29 Dec. 2024 This approach is not new; it could also be called tough-minded diplomacy. Dan Caldwell, Foreign Affairs, 13 Nov. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tough-minded
Adjective
  • Photo Gallery This kind of unraveling isn’t that new in the pantheon of British kitchen-sink dramas, but what is quite startling is the film’s clear-eyed, unsentimental portrayal of Michael as the author of his own tragedy.
    Damon Wise, Deadline, 17 May 2025
  • Success in great-power competition requires rigorous and unsentimental net assessment.
    Kurt M. Campbell, Foreign Affairs, 10 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Darcy goes running after Elizabeth in the rain…and then proposes to her in quite a clumsy and unromantic way?
    Marley Marius, Vogue, 25 Mar. 2025
  • Unforgiven recasts the genre as a pitiless, almost pathologically unromantic realm populated by twits hoping to make their name and aged gunslingers who have to make peace with their bad pasts.
    Will Leitch, Vulture, 3 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • This makes the usually levelheaded Venita’s behavior make way more sense.
    Brian Moylan, Vulture, 6 Mar. 2025
  • But LaVine attacked this season with vigor, reshaping himself into a levelheaded leader and efficient scorer who earned quiet praise around the league.
    Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 3 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • And, of course, doing all these things in the presence of clients just shows a complete lack of rational thought.
    Joe Cermele, Outdoor Life, 29 May 2025
  • This is a state where each person settles on a strategy that feels rational given everyone else’s, even if the group as a whole is stuck in mediocrity.
    Mark Travers, Forbes.com, 23 May 2025
Adjective
  • The cars are an entry point for new buyers into the Porsche brand, cheaper than 911s and less powerful, but also just as well-made, and, for many, the most sensible Porsche one can buy brand new.
    Erik Shilling, Robb Report, 22 May 2025
  • The wilderness is not unkind to those who understand it and take sensible precautions.
    Ted Updike, Outdoor Life, 22 May 2025
Adjective
  • Even with Bailey singing her lovestruck heart out, Rob Marshall's redo doesn't make the same refreshing splash as the 1989 animated classic but gets points for trying with a more logical narrative.
    Brian Truitt, USA Today, 26 May 2025
  • Therefore, the logical starting point might be to first to prop this thing at least back up to respectability.
    Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 24 May 2025
Adjective
  • Is this a cynical attempt to rescue their party from a political free fall?
    John Opdycke, The Orlando Sentinel, 21 May 2025
  • And so Lee’s reinterpretation strains to leave us on a high instead of a low, as befits the finale of an update so compellingly eager to flip the script on one of Kurosawa’s most cynical films.
    David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 19 May 2025
Adjective
  • So the way to stay sane is having fun and this is a kid’s game.
    Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune, 21 May 2025
  • To anyone sane who respects basic American norms and traditions, these firms are doing their job — and the abuse of executive power to treat them roughly as one might a terrorist organization is to cast the rule of law into a dung heap.
    New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 29 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Tough-minded.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tough-minded. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.

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