tough as old boots
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Very tough; very strong.
Where it’s used:
Used
American English
Examples
Do you remember old Edwina Currie saying in an interview, she was talking about John Major and she said ‘ oh, don't worry about John Major, he can hold his own, he's as tough as old boots’.
But she's as tough as old boots.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Adapted from English Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30 via kaikki.org).
Common questions
What does “tough as old boots” mean?
Very tough; very strong.
Is “tough as old boots” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.