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general::
Phrase(s): a tough break
a bit of bad fortune. • I’m sorry to hear about your accident. Tough break. • John had a lot of tough breaks when he was a kid, but he’s doing okay now.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
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general::
Also, tough luck. A trying or troublesome circumstance, bad luck, as in He got a tough break when he was denied a raise, or Tough luck for the team last night. This idiom uses tough in the sense of "difficult," a usage dating from the early 1600s. The variant is Also used as a sarcastic interjection, as in So you didn't make straight A's? tough luck! A slangy variant of this interjection is tough beans, and a ruder version is tough shit. [Colloquial; c. 1900]
American Heritage Idioms