Being so tough, they make me chicken out (2-3)
I believe the answer is:
he-men
'being so tough they' is the definition.
The definition and answer are not the same part of speech.
'make me chicken out' is the wordplay.
'make' indicates anagramming the letters.
'chicken' becomes 'hen' (hen is a kind of chicken).
'out' is an insertion indicator.
'me' anagrammed gives 'em'.
'em' inserted within 'hen' is 'HE-MEN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for he-men that I've seen before include "Virile chaps" , "Strong fellows" .)