hard-boiled
Americanadjective
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Cooking. (of an egg) boiled in the shell long enough for the yolk and white to solidify.
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Informal. tough; unsentimental.
a hard-boiled vice-squad detective.
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marked by a direct, clear-headed approach; realistic.
a hard-boiled appraisal of the foreign situation.
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(of detective fiction) written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.
adjective
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(of an egg) boiled until the yolk and white are solid
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informal
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tough, realistic
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cynical
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Other Word 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.
Clutton-Brock has joked that his most important discovery was meerkats’ fondness for hard-boiled egg.
From Slate • May 10, 2026
Start with fully hard-boiled eggs: whites set, yolks cooked through but still tender.
From Salon • Apr. 14, 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
She was a fan of hard-boiled eggs and slices of fresh avocado, and she, too, loved to read about the pink of strawberry ice lollies and the red of sunsets and the orange of oranges.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 1, 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.
