hard-boiled
See also: hardboiled
English
Alternative forms
- hardboiled
- hard boiled
Adjective
hard-boiled (comparative more hard-boiled, superlative most hard-boiled)
- (of a boiled egg) Cooked to a solid consistency.
- (of a person, especially a detective) Callous and unsentimental.
- 1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post:
- 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.
- 1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 31:
- 'Some big, hard-boiled egg meets up with a pretty face, and bingo! He cracks up and melts.'
- 1934, James T. Farrell, The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan, Ch. 17:
- 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.
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- (literature, especially detective fiction) Written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.
Related terms
- soft-boiled
Translations
of an egg
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callous
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Verb
hard-boiled
- simple past tense and past participle of hard-boil