bad news vs tough cookie

bad news

noun
  • An irritating, troublesome or harmful person, situation or thing. 

  • News of unpleasant, unfortunate or sad events. 

tough cookie

noun
  • Something troublesome or difficult to handle. 

  • A hardy, resilient animal or plant. 

  • A person who can endure physical or mental hardship; a hardened, strong-willed person. 

How often have the words bad news and tough cookie occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )