hardboil
Cook egg solid
To hardboil an egg is to cook it in boiling water until both yolk and white are solid throughout, as opposed to softboiling, which leaves the yolk runny.
The past participle hardboiled extends figuratively to describe tough, cynical, unsentimental people—especially detectives in crime fiction: a hardboiled private eye.
Durable and strong
- grittyCoarse or courageous
- callousCruelly insensitive to others
- hardenedMade tough or unfeeling
- stoicUncomplaining endurer of hardship
rugged · unemotional · unsentimental · cynical · world-weary · jaded · streetwise · grizzled
tough
Durable and strong
stoic · rugged · unemotional · unsentimental · cynical · world-weary · jaded · streetwise · grizzled · battle-scarred
noir
Hard-boiled film genre
- gumshoeInformal term for detective
- sleuthPrivate investigator
- whodunitCrime fiction identifying perpetrator
crime · underworld · shamus · pistol · stakeout · dossier · informant · speakeasy · trenchcoat · cynical
egg
Reproductive cell in shell
boiling · water · simmer · peel · shell · yolk · white · albumen · breakfast · protein
- hardboiled detectiveTough, cynical private eye
- hardboiled fictionCynical crime writing genre