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

Of course, if soft-boiled eggs aren’t your cup of tea, you can always make them hard-boiled.

From Salon ● Jun. 13, 2026

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

From Slate ● May 10, 2026

As his deceit becomes apparent, the music shifts from crisp hip-hop beats to a hard-boiled film noir crescendo.

From BBC ● Mar. 26, 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

I took a bite of hard-boiled egg and chewed it furiously.

From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz

Related Words

• hard-nosed