hard-boiled

American  

[hahrd-boild] / ˈhɑrdˈbɔɪld /

adjective

1. Cooking. (of an egg) boiled boil in the shell long enough for the yolk and white to solidify.

2. Informal. tough; unsentimental.

   a hard-boiled vice-squad detective.

3. marked by a direct, clear-headed approach; realistic.

   a hard-boiled appraisal of the foreign situation.

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

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hard-boiled British  

adjective

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

2. informal

   1. tough, realistic

   2. cynical

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Other Word Forms

• hard-boiledness noun

Etymology

Origin of hard-boiled

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

Example Sentences

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

It’s what I like to call a maximalist egg — an egg, whether omelet, scrambled, or even hard-boiled, that doesn’t skimp on anything.

From Salon • Mar. 21, 2026

Crime fiction became more realistic, an approach presaged by Dashiell Hammett and other hard-boiled American writers in the 1920s.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 20, 2026

A cultured breed distinct from the hard-boiled native brand, its king and queen are Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, as it is almost impossible not to know.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2025

Advice, when she offered it, tended to be of the hard-boiled and pragmatic variety.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Related Words

• hard-nosed