tough-love

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English

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Verb

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tough-love (third-person singular simple present tough-loves, present participle tough-loving, simple past and past participle tough-loved)

  1. (informal, transitive) To practice tough love; to treat someone with compassion but applying stringent discipline in order to improve their behavior.
    • 1999, Estella Conwill Majozo, Come Out the Wilderness: Memoir of a Black Woman Artist, page 239:
      The system's got some of our finest men being tough-loved to death!
    • 2000, Malinda Teel, Fortitude: True Stories of True Grit, page 87:
      In time, the counselors at the program tough-loved me into acknowledging that I was using my disabilities as an excuse to drink and drug.
    • 2002, John Cantwell Kiley, The Breakaway Pope, page 41:
      He must be tough-loved by the Church.
    • 2004, Thomas Henderson, Frank Luksa, In Control: The Rebirth of an NFL Legend, page 87:
      He tough-loved the hell out of me without ever knowing what tough love meant.
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