Definition of "hard-boiled"

hard-boiled

adjective
comparative more hard-boiled, superlative most hard-boiled
1. Cooked to a solid consistency. (of a boiled egg)
2. Callous and unsentimental. (of a person, especially a detective)
  Quotations
  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.
  1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post‎
  'Some big, hard-boiled egg meets up with a pretty face, and bingo! He cracks up and melts.'
  1932, Delos W. Lovelace, King Kong, published 1965, page 31
  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.
  1934, James T. Farrell, chapter 17, in The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan
3. (literature, especially detective fiction) Written in a laconic, dispassionate, often ironic style for a realistic, unsentimental effect.
verb
1. simple past and past participle of hard-boil