Dictionary

twenty-minute egg en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (dated, slang) A very hard-boiled person; one who is tough and unsentimental
   • 'A stinker?' No, he said, it wasn't a stinker. 'A tough baby?' 'No.' 'A twenty-minute egg?' 'That was it, sir. Mr Runkle is a twenty-minute egg.' 1971, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, Much obliged, Jeeves:
   • The delegates to a national convention are, as the politicians say, "twenty-minute eggs," and such a convention is the super-market place for political deals and bargains, trades and treachery. 1938, Frank Richardson Kent, The great game of politics, page 246:
   • He was a twenty-minute egg, according to your grandfather, and such men are not soon forgotten. 1932, Peter B. Kyne, Lord of Lonely Valley:

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