hard-boiled

comparative more hard-boiled · superlative most hard-boiled · alternative hardboiled · alternative hard boiled

1. Of a boiled egg, cooked to a solid consistency.

   Antonyms: runny, soft-boiled

2. figurativelyOf a person, especially a detective, callous and unsentimental.

   'Some big, hard-boiled egg meets up with a pretty face, and bingo! He cracks up and melts.'

   1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 31

   2 more examples

   He told me afterward that he tried to find his folks and square himself—and maybe it was the truth—but some of the hard-boiled townspeople found him, instead, and he had a running fight all the way to the depot.

   1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post

   Christ, maybe that blond was only a bitch after all. Maybe she put out even to the punks. Come to think of it, she looked a little hard-boiled. The kind of a broad who knew a hell of a lot.

   1934, James T. Farrell, chapter 17, in The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan

   Synonyms: harsh, severe, brutal, callous, cold, insensate, hardhanded, cold-eyed

3. figurativelyespecially detective fictionliteratureWritten in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.

alternative hardboiled · alternative hard boiled

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of hard-boil