HARD-BOILED Synonyms: 221 Similar and Opposite Words

hard-boiled

adjective

ˈhärd-ˈbȯi(-ə)ld

Definition of hard-boiled

as in ruthless

having or showing a lack of sympathy or tender feelings a hard-boiled Puritan schoolmaster who was as unyielding as New England granite

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in smart

having or showing a practical cleverness or judgment made the hard-boiled business decision to downsize the company, thereby costing thousands of longtime employees their jobs

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of hard-boiled Boiled Placing eggs in boiling water with the shells on is another healthy cooking method that can be used until the yolk is runny (soft-boiled) or fully cooked (hard-boiled). — Cristina Mutchler, Verywell Health, 29 Jan. 2026 The lenses of deep-sea fish are also especially susceptible to clouding, in the same way that egg whites go from clear to opaque when hard-boiled. — Literary Hub, 25 Sep. 2025 For lunch or dinner, top a salad with scrambled or hard-boiled eggs. — Amanda MacMillan, Health, 1 Mar. 2023 This is outback noir — oblique, secretive and as hard-boiled as the ground is hard-baked — and Sen wears it well. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 23 Feb. 2023 See All Example Sentences for hard-boiled

Recent Examples of Synonyms for hard-boiled

Adjective

Sure, that sounds ridiculous for a season about rape, infidelity, mass murder, suicide, and society’s ruthless commodification of those very things.

— Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 6 Oct. 2026
In part, Iran’s political system and ruthless crackdown on protest has given it some insulation from the economic destruction imposed by the blockade and sanctions.

— David Goldman, CNN Money, 6 Oct. 2026

Definition of ruthless

Adjective

There will always be smart people, tech people, who don't have the world's best interests in mind.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 5 Oct. 2026
And now there is Trudie’s Tavern, which opened this past summer in Carroll Gardens, a smart little restaurant that’s the most ambitious, and the most accomplished, of the three.

— Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2026

Definition of smart

Adjective

Cora, the granddaughter of a woman kidnapped from West Africa and sold into slavery, flees her captor’s plantation, plunging her into the book’s alternate steampunk reality where she is pursued by the merciless slave catcher Ridgeway.

— David Faris, TheWeek, 16 Sep. 2026
But the movie very much belongs to Trinca and Bruni Tedeschi, just as Anna belongs to the merciless stranger.

— David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 8 Sep. 2026

Definition of merciless

Adjective

They must be addressed in a hardheaded and balanced way, not as Mayor Johnson insists by simply hiking taxes on businesses and the wealthy.

— The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 20 Sep. 2026
Andrea Suarez leads a group, We Heart Seattle, that combines care for the homeless with a hardheaded insistence on legal consequences and addiction treatment for drug users.

— Michael Powell, The Atlantic, 30 July 2026

Definition of hardheaded

Adjective

Oscar Wilde, for example, reposes beneath a hulking deity whose iconoclastic castration, back in 1961, did little to restrain pilgrims seeking to smear red lips across his stony physique.

— Emily Cox, ARTnews.com, 22 May 2026
Instead of looking like a sleek urban loft, the room can quickly start to feel cold, stony, and impersonal.

— Natasha Bazika, Martha Stewart, 9 May 2026

Definition of stony

Adjective

One of the grid’s most astute late-nineteenth-century critics, the geologist John Wesley Powell, decried its environmental recklessness.

— Daniel Immerwahr, New Yorker, 28 Sep. 2026
As some astute readers have pointed out, Gen has piled up a lot of dirty laundry this season.

— Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2026

Definition of astute

Adjective

The veteran quarterback was sacked and didn’t return for the Commanders (1-3).

— ABC News, ABC News, 4 Oct. 2026
But credit is also due to the Raiders, who finally have a capable head coach, a veteran quarterback and a potential quarterback of the future waiting behind him.

— Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 4 Oct. 2026

Definition of veteran

Adjective

But other fairly savvy users among tech mavens don’t point to urgent needs that only Muse can satisfy.

— Business Columnist, Los Angeles Times, 2 Oct. 2026
Newsom has started two podcasts of his own, and has fomented a reputation as one of the more media-savvy members of the Democratic Party.

— Lia Russell, Sacbee.com, 30 Sep. 2026

Definition of savvy

Browse Nearby Words

hard-bitten

hard-boiled

hardcase

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“Hard-boiled.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hard-boiled. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.

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Synonyms of hard-boiled

adjective

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