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What is "hard-boiled"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
hard-boiled
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
egg
▪ Held an egg-rolling competition, using hard-boiled eggs?
▪ A practical nurse brought old red wine, a silver tray of smoked salmon, crumbled hard-boiled egg, capers and lemon.
▪ There were bowls of coleslaw and potato salad laced with green peas, buttered garlic rolls and hard-boiled eggs.
▪ Stuffed hard-boiled eggs, most often called deviled eggs, can be spicy, plain or very exotic.
▪ For example, there is the hard-boiled egg diet where four to six eggs are eaten each day.
▪ He arrived at the picnic when even the last hard-boiled egg had been consumed.
▪ Halve six hard-boiled eggs and lay 3 on each plate.
▪ Some recipes include hard-boiled eggs and spinach, but this version is simpler and more elegant.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ hard-boiled detective novels
▪ a hard-boiled businesswoman
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A practical nurse brought old red wine, a silver tray of smoked salmon, crumbled hard-boiled egg, capers and lemon.
▪ Blanche told him what Spittals had said and he looked at her with his brown, hard-boiled eyes.
▪ For example, there is the hard-boiled egg diet where four to six eggs are eaten each day.
▪ Halve six hard-boiled eggs and lay 3 on each plate.
▪ He arrived at the picnic when even the last hard-boiled egg had been consumed.
▪ Since then, Johnson has established himself as a novelist with the large, messy talent of a hard-boiled poet.
▪ Stuffed hard-boiled eggs, most often called deviled eggs, can be spicy, plain or very exotic.
▪ There were bowls of coleslaw and potato salad laced with green peas, buttered garlic rolls and hard-boiled eggs.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
hard-boiled

hard-bitten \hard-bitten\ hard-boiled \hard-boiled\adj. not given to sentimentality or gentleness; -- of people; as, a hard-bitten character.

Syn: pugnacious, tough.

hard-boiled

hard-boiled \hard-boiled\ adj.

  1. same as hard-bitten.

    Syn: hard-bitten, pugnacious.

  2. emotionally hardened; -- used of persons.

    Syn: callous, case-hardened, hardened.

  3. cooked until the yolk is solid; -- used of eggs; as, a breakfast of pancakes and hard-boiled eggs.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
hard-boiled

also hardboiled, 1723 in reference to eggs, from hard + boiled. In transferred sense "severe, tough," from 1886.

Wiktionary
hard-boiled

  1. 1 (qualifier: of a boiled egg) cooked to a solid consistency. 2 (qualifier: of a person, especially of a detective) callous and unsentimental. alt. 1 (qualifier: of a boiled egg) cooked to a solid consistency. 2 (qualifier: of a person, especially of a detective) callous and unsentimental. v

  2. (en-pasthard-boil)

WordNet
hard-boiled

  1. adj. tough and callous by virtue of experience [syn: hard-bitten, pugnacious]

  2. used of persons; emotionally hardened; "faced a case-hardened judge" [syn: case-hardened, hardened]

  3. (used of eggs) cooked until the yolk is solid