hard-boiled

American  

[hahrd-boild] / ˈhɑrdˈbɔɪld /

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.

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

See Examples For:

hard-boiled

The Continental Op, the nameless sleuth in Dashiell Hammett’s “Red Harvest,” introduced the country to a hard-boiled aesthetic that would define much of the American crime genre.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Clutton-Brock has joked that his most important discovery was meerkats’ fondness for hard-boiled egg.

From Slate ● May 10, 2026

A hard-boiled egg is something else entirely: firm, portable, reliable, tucked into lunchboxes or sliced over a salad.

From Salon ● Apr. 3, 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

I never saw this great-uncle but I'm supposed to look like him--with special reference to the rather hard-boiled painting that hangs in Father's office.

From " The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Related Words

• hard-nosed