— hard-boiledness , n.
/hahrd"boyld"/ , adj.
1. Cookery. (of an egg) boiled in the shell long enough for the yolk and white to solidify.
2. Informal. 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. (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 ]