Fracture of compliant materials is preceded by large deformations that reshape initially sharp cracks into rounded defects. This phenomenon, known as elastic crack blunting, is peculiar of rubber-like polymers and soft biological tissues, such as skin, vessel walls, and tendons. With this work, we aim to provide a discussion on crack-tip blunting and its implications in terms of tearing resistance and flaw tolerance of soft elastic materials. The characteristic features of the crack-tip zone in the framework of nonlinear elasticity are reviewed analytically and with the help of finite element analyses on pure shear cracked geometries. Specifically, the strain-hardening behavior typical of soft biological tissues is addressed, and we illustrate its effect on crack-tip blunting, in terms of a local radius of curvature at the crack tip. A simplified