hardboiled

hard-boiled

1. Literally, having reached a solid state through boiling, as of eggs. Mom is making hard-boiled eggs for breakfast. You don't like eggs of any kind? Scrambled, over easy, hard-boiled—none of the above? Are deviled eggs hard-boiled first?

2. Tough and dispassionate; hardened by experience. My brother, the hard-boiled police officer, becomes a gushing fool if you ask him about his baby daughter. Nobody can see these kinds of heinous atrocities every day and not become at least somewhat hard-boiled. I know guys are encouraged to be hard-boiled, but I personally find vulnerability very attractive in a man.

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

hardboiled

mod. tough; heartless. Do you have to act so hardboiled?

McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.