gumshoe
Americannoun
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Slang. a detective.
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a shoe made of gum elastic or India rubber; rubber overshoe.
verb (used without object)
noun
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a waterproof overshoe
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a rubber-soled shoe
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slang a detective or one who moves about stealthily
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slang a stealthy action or movement
verb
Etymology
Origin of gumshoe
Explanation
When you wear gumshoes, you're pulling on waterproof galoshes over your regular footwear. If you are a gumshoe, on the other hand, you're a private detective, investigating a case. The "detective" meaning of this word comes from the "galoshes" definition. In fact, during the late 19th century, gumshoes or gums were any type of rubber-soled shoes. Around the turn of the 20th century, to gumshoe meant "to sneak around," and by 1906, gumshoe became a common nickname for plainclothes detectives (or "private eyes"), famous for moving stealthily in their quiet rubber-soled shoes.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Farrell is terrific, as always, as an empathetic gumshoe investigating a trail of crime and corruption that rings true to devotees of L.A. noir, from Raymond Chandler to “Chinatown” to Jordan Harper.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
Cage, who voiced a different version of the “Spider-Noir” character in the animated “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” is a good choice for the weary gumshoe.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 25, 2026
Kilpatrick isn’t entirely fresh to the gumshoe storytelling business, having appeared in HBO’s “Perry Mason.”
From Salon ● Apr. 2, 2024
Melling’s scenery-chewing portrayal of the budding writer — and, here, amateur gumshoe — is one of the film’s chief delights.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2023
In literature and in the popular imagination, the all-seeing private eye—the gumshoe, the cinder dick, the sleuthhound, the shadow—displaced the crusading sheriff as the archetype of rough justice.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Then he gumshoed around the neighborhood and found that Ohman, though uneducated in a formal sense, was a smart man who often expressed an urge to fool the scholars.
From Time Magazine Archive
Today there are spooky gumshoed armies of "security consultants," "rent-a-cops," "private eyes," "outside experts"—every manner of shady operator who retails in "results" and discretion.
From The Hacker Crackdown, law and disorder on the electronic frontier by Bruce Sterling
"Has that grasping old monopolist gumshoed into town again?" inquired Washburn, and promptly ordered his secretary to get Boise on the telephone.
From Five Thousand an Hour : how Johnny Gamble won the heiress by George Randolph Chester
When your trades are newspapering and gumshoeing, you tend to meet interesting people from all walks of life.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 22, 2022
Last week, run down at last by dogged gumshoeing, Mr. Grey went to trial in Manhattan's General Sessions Court on charges of tampering with boxing.
From Time Magazine Archive
Before the Gibraltar meeting, Murphy had been gumshoeing through North Africa.
From Time Magazine Archive
In all, some 17,000 names were carefully set down by Hague's 311 district leaders, with appropriate comments by gumshoeing ward heelers.
From Time Magazine Archive
Before Tim was out of the building Killen was gumshoeing after him.
From The Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
