hard-boiled
Cooking. (of an egg) boiled in the shell long enough for the yolk and white to solidify.
Informal. tough; unsentimental: a hard-boiled vice-squad detective.
marked by a direct, clear-headed approach; realistic: a hard-boiled appraisal of the foreign situation.
(of detective fiction) written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.
Origin of hard-boiled
1Other words from hard-boiled
- hard-boiledness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use hard-boiled in a sentence
They are poached instead of hard-boiled, boasting anti-heroes with nihilistic worldviews who are nevertheless vulnerable.
‘True Detective,’ Obsessive-Compulsive Noir, and ‘Twin Peaks’ | Jimmy So | March 14, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOn a lighter note, your character in the film has an interesting eating habit: he eats two hard-boiled eggs a day.
Christopher Plummer on Muhammad Ali and Getting a Police Horse Drunk | Marlow Stern | October 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTBecause it lacks the stylish voice of a hard-boiled detective noir, it sometimes feels coldly industrious.
This Week’s Hot Reads: July 29, 2013 | Jessica Ferri, Damaris Colhoun | July 29, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTSince this fall, though, as the governing got tough, the president has been avoiding fiction for some hard-boiled history.
I had her on my Food Network show, Cooking Live, twice (the first time to make those famous non-boiled hard-boiled eggs).
When growing flower plants from seeds, start them in halves of shells from hard-boiled eggs.
The Boy Mechanic, Book 2 | VariousAdd four hard-boiled yolks of eggs, and pour gravy all over, cover with puff paste, and bake for one hour and a quarter.
Dressed Game and Poultry la Mode | Harriet A. de SalisI'll bet you anything that Uncle Sim himself couldn't go to Athens tomorrow and order a cup of coffee and a hard-boiled egg!
Left Tackle Thayer | Ralph Henry BarbourHe climbed half way, and then ate lunch, which consisted of nine hard boiled eggs.
The Book of Life: Vol. I Mind and Body; Vol. II Love and Society | Upton SinclairCreamed hard-boiled eggs on toast; coffee; fried hominy and syrup.
Living on a Little | Caroline French Benton
British Dictionary definitions for hard-boiled
(of an egg) boiled until the yolk and white are solid
informal
tough, realistic
cynical
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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