hard-boiled
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.67 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of a boiled egg, cooked to a solid consistency.
adj
Of a person, especially a detective, callous and unsentimental.
adj
Written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.
verb
simple past and past participle of hard-boil
Example Sentences
- "He told me afterward that he tried to find his folks and square himself—and maybe it was the truth—but some of the hard-boiled townspeople found him, instead, and he had a running fight all the way to the depot."
- "'Some big, hard-boiled egg meets up with a pretty face, and bingo! He cracks up and melts.'"
- "Christ, maybe that blond was only a bitch after all. Maybe she put out even to the punks. Come to think of it, she looked a little hard-boiled. The kind of a broad who knew a hell of a lot."
Inflected Forms
more hard-boiled (comparative)
most hard-boiled (superlative)
hardboiled (alternative)
hard boiled (alternative)