private eye

American  

noun

Slang.

1. a private detective.

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private eye British  

noun

1. informal a private detective

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private eye Idioms  

1. A privately employed detective, as opposed to one working for the police or another authority. For example, The children loved stories about private eyes, and Janey wanted to become one. This expression comes from the term private investigator, the “i” of investigator being changed to “eye,” which plays on the idea of a person looking into things. [1930s]

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Etymology

Origin of private eye

1935–40; eye, allusive phonetic rendering of I, abbreviation of investigator

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

private eye

There’s also a malevolent private eye played by Raymond Burr in the disconcerting role that made him a star.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026

The author of “Gravity’s Rainbow” sends a private eye on the trail of a missing heiress in a complex, comic, Prohibition-era caper.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2025

The article focused on Robert Winnett, the British journalist poised to take over The Post’s newsroom in November, and described his links to a private eye who used unethical media practices to land big exclusives.

From New York Times ● Jun. 17, 2024

“The New York Trilogy,” which included “City of Glass,” “Ghosts” and “The Locked Room,” was a postmodern detective saga in which names and identities blur and one protagonist is a private eye named Paul Auster.

From Seattle Times ● May 1, 2024

Every detective story started with the private eye or police detective taking a case, and Ophie already had that: What had happened to Clara?

From "Ophie's Ghosts" by Justina Ireland

Related Words

• P.I.
• inquiry agent
• private detective
• private dick
• private investigator
• sleuth