hard-boiled
Americanadjective
-
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.
adjective
-
(of an egg) boiled until the yolk and white are solid
-
informal
-
tough, realistic
-
cynical
-
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of hard-boiled
1715–25; 1895–80 hard-boiled for def. 2; hard + boiled
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Perhaps you’ve heard of “car-cuterie”—a spread of cheeses, salumi, fresh fruit and hard-boiled eggs assembled entirely from convenience store shelves.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 6, 2026
Clutton-Brock has joked that his most important discovery was meerkats’ fondness for hard-boiled egg.
From Slate • May 10, 2026
Mince the hard-boiled eggs cleanly — decisive cuts, not frantic mashing.
From Salon • Apr. 14, 2026
They added that while historically, visitors "turned up with hard-boiled eggs, more recently these are often switched for chocolate eggs to be rolled down the hill".
From BBC • Mar. 31, 2026
“No. He was too hard-boiled and had a bad future coming....”
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
