hard-boiled
/'hɑ:d'bɔild/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Adjective:
- Cooked until solid: Refers to eggs that have been boiled until both the white and yolk are completely solid.
- Emotionally hardened: Used to describe a person who is tough, unsentimental, and not easily affected by emotions, often due to difficult experiences.
Examples of Usage
- Adjective:
- For breakfast, I prefer a hard-boiled egg. (This describes an egg cooked until solid.)
- The detective in the novel is a classic hard-boiled character, cynical and world-weary. (This describes a person who is emotionally tough.)
- After years in the competitive business, she became quite hard-boiled. (This describes a person who has become callous.)
Advanced Usage
- "Hard-boiled" as a style: In literature and film, particularly in the crime/detective genre, "hard-boiled" describes a gritty, unsentimental, and realistic style featuring tough, cynical protagonists.
- He writes in the hard-boiled tradition of Dashiell Hammett.
- Figurative use for attitudes: Can describe an uncompromising, pragmatic, or ruthless attitude.
- The company has a hard-boiled approach to negotiations.
Variants and Related Words
- Hard-boil (verb): To cook an egg in boiling water until it becomes solid.
- You should hard-boil the eggs for at least ten minutes.
- Hard-boiledness (noun, rare): The quality of being hard-boiled.
- Hard-bitten (adjective): Similar in meaning to the emotional sense; tough and cynical from experience.
Synonyms
- For eggs: Solid, cooked through.
- For persons: Callous, cynical, tough, unsentimental, hardened, case-hardened, unfeeling.
Related Phrases
- Hard-boiled detective: A specific character type in fiction.
- Philip Marlowe is the quintessential hard-boiled detective.
- Hard-boiled fiction: A genre of crime fiction.
- He is an avid reader of hard-boiled fiction.
Adjective
- (eggs) cooked until the yolk is solid
- used of persons; emotionally hardened
- faced a case-hardened judge
- tough and callous by virtue of experience