hard nut to crack vs toughie

hard nut to crack

noun
  • A situation, person, group, etc. which is difficult to overcome or deal with. 

  • A problem that is challenging to solve. 

  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see hard, nut, crack. 

  • A place, opportunity, etc. to which it is difficult to gain entry. 

  • An amount that is difficult to finance. 

toughie

noun
  • Something that is tough, or difficult. 

  • Someone or something that is strong and resilient. 

  • A tough; Someone or something that acts as a thug or bully. 

How often have the words hard nut to crack and toughie occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )