twenty-minute egg

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twenty-minute egg (plural twenty-minute eggs)

1. (dated, slang) A very hard-boiled person; one who is tough and unsentimental
   • 1932, Peter B. Kyne, Lord of Lonely Valley:

     He was a twenty-minute egg, according to your grandfather, and such men are not soon forgotten.

   • 1938, Frank Richardson Kent, The great game of politics, page 246:

     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.

   • 1971, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, Much obliged, Jeeves:

     '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.'