Tougher than a Boiled Owl

Tougher than a boiled owl means extremely tough or hard to deal with - whether describing a person, meat, or situation. The idea is that an owl, if you ever tried to boil it, would be about the toughest thing imaginable.

#Southernish

synonyms: tough as nails, ornery, mean, hard as woodpecker lips, strong as a bull

Hillbilly Dude Says...

'Tougher than a boiled owl' is another one I ain't never heard - only read it.

Hillbilly Dude Says...

'Tougher than a boiled owl' is another one I ain't never heard - only read it.

Pronunciation

[TUFF-er thun uh BOILD OWL]
/ˈtʌfər ðən ə bɔɪld aʊl/

Meaning & Usage

- Extremely tough or resilient

Carl:

How’s that old truck still runnin’?

Ethel:

It’s tougher than a boiled owl, that’s how.

variations: tough as a boiled owl, tougher’n a boiled owl

Origin

The phrase likely dates back to the **late 1800s**, when folksy humor and animal comparisons colored frontier talk across the American West.

"Boiled owl" was sometimes used in tall tales and cowboy banter - an image for something so **stringy, leathery, or impossible to chew** it became shorthand for toughness.

By the 20th century, it showed up in Southern and Ozark humor, blending into broader country speech.

Verdict: Southernish. Its rural flavor makes it sound perfectly Southern, but its roots are old American frontier slang.

Notes

Used mostly humorously to praise toughness or complain about toughness (of meat, for example).
Popular in cowboy, military, and rural storytelling traditions.
Appears in early 1900s humor columns and American folklore collections.
Still understood today, though mostly as an old-timey or joking expression.

Common Questions

What does "tougher than a boiled owl" mean?

It means very tough - hard to beat, chew, or wear down.

Is it Southern?

Not strictly. It’s an old American frontier idiom, later adopted into Southern and country speech.

Why an owl?

Because owls are lean, wiry birds - if you boiled one, it’d be about the toughest meat imaginable.

Is it still used?

Occasionally, mostly for humor or color in rural storytelling and writing.

How to Cite This Page

APA (7th edition)
The Hillbilly Dude. (2025, November 2). Tougher than a Boiled Owl. HillbillySlang.com. https://www.hillbillyslang.com/southernish/tougher-than-a-boiled-owl
MLA (9th edition)
"The Hillbilly Dude." "Tougher than a Boiled Owl." HillbillySlang.com, 2 Nov. 2025, https://www.hillbillyslang.com/southernish/tougher-than-a-boiled-owl.
Chicago (17th edition)
The Hillbilly Dude. "Tougher than a Boiled Owl." HillbillySlang.com. November 2, 2025. https://www.hillbillyslang.com/southernish/tougher-than-a-boiled-owl.

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