Definition of "tough-minded" [tough-minded]

• Facing facts and difficulties with strength and determination; realistic and resolute. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "• We haven't heard the Cowboys called a tough-minded team much in recent seasons, but that's the emerging trait I see from Jason Garrett's 7-4 team, which has now won four in a row."
• "When Mike Griffin was first appointed to be the NASA administrator, I had great hopes for him, as I perceived him to be an enlightened, tough-minded, and thoughtful "scientist-administrator," rather than a business-oriented accountant."
• "Tim is clueless when it comes to the ways of conventioneers, so he is swept off his feet by a sexy insurance agent from Nebraska — she's played engagingly by Anne Heche — and knocked for interlocking loops by his roommates, the crazed Dean (John C. Reilly in full, glorious bray), and the tough-minded Ronald (Isiah Whitlock Jr., who played the terrifyingly corrupt state senator in "The Wire")."