Preposition: on

• crime: Or, to revive a slogan coined by Brown: tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

• terror: BLAIR: Firstly, we must be tough on terror and tough on the causes of terror.

• cause: Tough on crime tough on the causes of crime.

• terrorism: He is trying to wrong-foot all those who oppose 90-days detention to prove that only he is tough on terrorism.

Preposition: as

• boot: She must be, as she looks, as tough as old boots.

Modifies a noun

• stance: We need to take a tough stance on all legal wrongs.

• opponent: You're almost there now: the penultimate chapter should detail a World XI, Club XI or toughest opponents XI.

• nut: A: Options on spread bets, options on futures, options on stocks, they're often a tough nut to crack.

• guy: Now he's set to become a Hollywood tough guy.

• decision: First, we took the tough decision to prioritize which schemes should get the go ahead.

• penalty: The campaign will also seek tougher new criminal penalties at the federal level.

Modifying Another Word

• pretty: The Pentium 4 was pretty tough for us to get ramped into the marketplace.

Infinitive complement

• withstand: The balls are made of wipe-clean vinyl that's tough enough to withstand heavy weights, and they are anti-burst for your safety.

• stomach: Tough to stomach farm would not central los angeles the new york.

• beat: The U.S. is overrated, I feel, and the Czechs will be very tough to beat.

• crack: Two games proving even tougher to crack than chess are bridge and Go.

Used with adjective complement

• get: Need to get tough on illegal immigrants working in the UK?

• prove: Two games proving even tougher to crack than chess are bridge and Go.

• talk: Gordon Brown started talking tough this week about standing up to the unions over pensions.

• hang: Spain, it is true, is still hanging tough despite massively mounting opposition to the policy of Jose Maria Aznar.