hard-boiled

[ hahrd-boild ]
See synonyms for hard-boiled on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. Cooking. (of an egg) boiled in the shell long enough for the yolk and white to solidify.

  2. Informal. tough; unsentimental: a hard-boiled vice-squad detective.

  1. marked by a direct, clear-headed approach; realistic: a hard-boiled appraisal of the foreign situation.

  2. (of detective fiction) written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.

Origin of hard-boiled

1
1715–25; 1895–80 for def. 2; hard + boiled

Other words from hard-boiled

  • hard-boiledness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

British Dictionary definitions for hard-boiled

hard-boiled

adjective
  1. (of an egg) boiled until the yolk and white are solid

  2. 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