Discover the unique dialect of hard-boiled detective novels. Dive into the slang words and phrases that defined the gritty world of private investigators.. hard boiled: An adjective describing a person that is seemingly unphased by anything. Derived from the Hong Kong movie Hard Boiled directed by John Woo.
A glossary of slang terms taken from the hardboiled "private eye" detective fiction of Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and others.. In "From Ameche to Zozzled", you'll find a collection of over 1,000 words from the glory days of hard-boiled cops and criminals. Each word or expression also comes with a usage example, because you don't want to look like a jamoke the next time you sit down at the old word mill.