hard-boiled

UK: /ˌhɑː^rdˈbɔɪld/ US: (härd′boild′)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

ˈhard-ˈboiled,  adj. 

1. Food (of an egg) boiled in the shell long enough for the yolk and white to solidify.
2. Informal Terms not sentimental;
   realistic;
   tough:
   a hard-boiled detective.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

hard-boiled  (härd′boild′), adj. 

1. Food [Cookery.] (of an egg) boiled in the shell long enough for the yolk and white to solidify.
2. Informal Terms 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. Literature (of detective fiction) written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.

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

hard′-boiled′ness, n. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

hard-boiled adjective

1. (of an egg) boiled until the yolk and white are solid
2. tough; realistic
3. cynical