G-man
Americannoun
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G-men
plural
noun
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slang an FBI agent
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a political detective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of G-man
First recorded in 1920–25; probably representing Government man
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:
“It’s something that stands still, stands strong, stands for a long time. And that’s exactly what G-man embodies.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2022
Law professor John Q. Barrett, who was an associate independent counsel during the Iran-Contra investigation, described Mueller to the Times as “rooted in the Justice Department” and possessed of “a kind of G-man temperament.”
From Salon ● May 30, 2019
Mr. Felt, played by Liam Neeson, is shown as the consummate G-man, in line to become FBI boss.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2018
And at 42, he’s now heading the Washington Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and looking every bit the G-man image he admired as a child.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2018
And there is scarcely a G-man or a Special Agent anywhere without a very firm opinion on that topic.
From The Hacker Crackdown, law and disorder on the electronic frontier by Bruce Sterling
They are 3-0 at home, beating the G-men in 1997, 2006 and 2014.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 20, 2022
Legend has it that gangster George Kelly Barnes, known as Machine Gun Kelly, coined the name G-men, or government men, for agents when he shouted “Don’t shoot, G-men!” while being arrested.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 15, 2022
Joe Judge changed the culture in his first year and led the G-men to six wins, which in the awful N.F.C.
From New York Times ● Feb. 23, 2021
South Florida just earned a shameful distinction - it is the single region in the country where the most FBI agents have been killed since G-men were created in 1908.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 3, 2021
When the G-men arrested spies and got hold of their code books, no one shared those books with Elizebeth—not even when her team had made the arrest possible.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
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.
