Showing tough love, say Crossword Clue

We have the 5-letter answer for Showing tough love, say crossword clue, last seen in the NYT Crossword September 27, 2025 puzzle. Let us help you solve the crossword clue that has you stumped so you can finish the puzzle.

Showing tough love, say Crossword Answer

→31.

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Helpful Hints

(adjective)
1. of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor; forbidding in aspect
2. severe and unremitting in making demands
(noun)
1. the rear part of a ship
2. United States concert violinist (born in Russia in 1920)

Hint 2: Clue Definitions

TOUGH (adjective)
1. making great mental demands; hard to comprehend or solve or believe
2. very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution
TOUGH (noun)
1. someone who learned to fight in the streets rather than being formally trained in the sport of boxing
2. an aggressive and violent young criminal
SHOWING (noun)
1. something shown to the public
2. the display of a motion picture

Hint 3: Anagram

Unscramble the letters below to solve for today's answer.
NERTS

More NYT Crossword (9/27/2025) Answers

Across

1. Thin underlayer

5. Comment often made with an eye roll

9. African capital whose name translates to "ants"

14. Derby, e.g

16. Commit a library taboo

17. Ship-to-ship communication

18. Lacks

19. Parent whose child is taking steps to improve?

20. Backbiter?

21. Puts in a protected place

23. They arose from Ra's tears, according to Egyptian mythology

24. Cries of disappointment

25. Components of some brick buildings

28. It might be living on the edge

32. Mash at a luau

33. "Please avoid brutal honesty!"

35. Wise

37. Certain drug classification, in brief

38. Ally of Athens during the Peloponnesian War

40. Fathers

41. Two-humper

43. Period that begins on July 23

44. It's not an option

45. Zest source

50. Brown alternative

51. Enterprise enterprise

52. WWE star Randy ___

54. Part of a high-tech security system

55. "Lift ___ Voice and Sing" (protest anthem)

56. They go from season to season

57. Short

58. Hibernation stations

59. Seven ___

All Answers

Down

1. Contempt, in slang

2. Actress with a dual role in 1998's "The Parent Trap"

3. Tends to some pressing matters

4. Punk

5. The first Musketeer, alphabetically

6. Kept hidden, as information

7. Product for winter sidewalk safety

8. "Mean Girls" writer

9. Firewood choice, or its destiny

10. Rubs the wrong way

11. Alternative to a crib

12. Classic rock?

13. Paratha flour

15. Digital file?

22. Runs slowly

23. Kind of contest with multiple chances to participate

26. [This makes me mad!]

27. Is on the bottom?

28. One who's slow to pick things up

29. What an insensitive joke might do

30. Locale for many community courts

31. "Love Story" author Erich

34. Diagnostic tool, in brief

36. Natural history museum collection

39. Simplest possible phone plan

42. Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye, among others

43. Solo sorts

46. Particle accelerator byproduct

47. Statement that might follow a hug

48. ___ Lines (ancient Peruvian geoglyphs)

49. Bandage

50. Burns, e.g.

53. What comes before 1/1

54. Drug discussed in Aldous Huxley's "Heaven and Hell"

All Answers