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:
This year, she’s vying for lead actress in a comedy for her performance as an eccentric gumshoe on the Netflix whodunit “The Residence.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2025
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
The panel does intend on continuing its gumshoe work as long as possible, and is not planning to release its final report until December.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 21, 2022
A few other things, really, including a fish-out-of-water comedy and a twisty detective story, with Ben as both fish and gumshoe.
From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2022
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 Sterling, Bruce
"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 Chester, George Randolph
When your trades are newspapering and gumshoeing, you tend to meet interesting people from all walks of life.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 22, 2022
Army's most publicized G.I. after his amateur gumshoeing for the late Joe McCarthy, could well beam.
From Time Magazine Archive
"This was a great piece of high-tech gumshoeing," marveled Steve Tuttle, vice president of the National Cable Television Association.
From Time Magazine Archive
His idea of Ken apparently savored too much of historical study, and not enough of gumshoeing to suit Messrs. Smart & Gingrich.
From Time Magazine Archive
We drove for about an hour, the horse gumshoeing his way through the dark until we came to the hotel.
From The Sorrows of a Show Girl by McGaffey, Kenneth
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.
