monster vs tough cookie

monster

noun
  • A cruel, heartless, or antisocial person, especially a criminal. 

  • A terrifying and dangerous creature. 

  • A bizarre or whimsical creature. 

  • Something unusually large. 

  • A prodigy; someone very talented in a specific domain. 

  • A badly behaved child, a brat. 

  • A non-player character that player(s) fight against in role-playing games. 

verb
  • To harass. 

  • To make into a monster; to categorise as a monster; to demonise. 

  • To behave as a monster to; to terrorise. 

  • To play (a series of) non-player characters as directed, without having the responsibility of organising the game itself; generally not limited to playing literal monsters or hostile combatants. 

adj
  • Great; very good; excellent. 

  • Very large; worthy of a monster. 

tough cookie

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

  • A hardy, resilient animal or plant. 

  • Something troublesome or difficult to handle. 

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