hard boiled

/hɑrdˈbɔɪld/
adjective
  1. (of an egg) cooked in boiling water until both the white and the yolk are solid.
    • For the picnic, we packed sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs.
    • She peeled the hard-boiled egg carefully to keep it intact.
    • I made a salad with hard-boiled eggs and fresh vegetables.
  2. (of a person) tough, unemotional, and not easily shocked, especially from experience in a difficult or violent environment.
    • After years of reporting from war zones, she became hard-boiled and cynical.
    • The detective in the movie was a hard-boiled character who never showed fear.
    • His hard-boiled attitude made it hard for him to connect with his coworkers.
  3. (of a style of fiction, especially crime fiction) realistic, tough, and unsentimental.
    • His writing style is hard-boiled, with short sentences and gritty dialogue.
    • The film is a classic example of hard-boiled noir storytelling.
    • She loves reading hard-boiled detective novels from the 1940s.
Antonyms
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