hard as nails
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It was that he had all the best qualities you’d want in somebody; his heart of gold, and then you couple that with him just being hard as nails and tough, no quit ever.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 9, 2025
On these second-act hits, Tucker was no longer the wild and wise child; she was a full-grown romantic, who managed to be, at the same time, hard as nails.
From The New Yorker • Aug. 23, 2019
She has grown up hearing about her grandmother: a "kind, really caring, lovely woman with this hard as nails personality."
From BBC • Sep. 29, 2015
She plays disempowered matriarch Carol – as hard as nails, like EastEnders' Lou Beale, but as brittle as pressed flowers when confronted with the horrible truth that her teenage sons have turned out bad 'uns.
From The Guardian • Jul. 7, 2013
Ain’t nothing in the world that’ll get you feeling fragile quicker than seeing a growned person you know is hard as nails looking afeared.
From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis
From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.
