private detective

noun

1. a detective who is not a member of an official force but is employed by private parties.

private detective

noun

1. an individual privately employed to investigate a crime, keep watch on a suspected person, or make other inquiries Also calledprivate investigator

Word History and Origins

Origin of private detective¹

First recorded in 1865–70

Example Sentences

Rong and the private detective met again, but the project in California fizzled out.

From ProPublica

In San Dieguito, union officials hired a private detective to tail a school board member.

From Voice of San Diego

In San Dieguito, union officials hired a private detective to follow a school board member and another was forced out.

From Voice of San Diego

Even before he finished law school, he had founded a private detective agency and became an expert in the relatively new field of polygraphy, or lie-detector testing, a skill that would help trigger his meteoric rise.

From Washington Post

Enter Raymond Schindler, a private detective who, like the mob that rushed the station, wielded a rope of his own.

From Washington Post

Back in 2009, Crone told Parliament that the phone-hacking allegations concerned only one rogue reporter and a private detective.

From The Daily Beast

But it did not take a private detective or a biographer like Walter Isaacson to uncover these transgressions.

From The Daily Beast

Frustrated by the Portuguese authorities, they hired their own private detective to follow up on countless sightings and leads.

From The Daily Beast

The very next morning,” Lorsch recalled, “I hired a private detective and found the bankruptcy.

From The Daily Beast

Law enforcement was something of a family business: Two uncles were police officers and his grandfather was a private detective.

From The Daily Beast

So did my versatile friend, joyously confident in his powers, start on his glorious career as a private detective.

From Project Gutenberg

He became a successful corporation lawyer and I starved for a while and then I became a private detective.

From Project Gutenberg

Allen was acting in two capacities at this time—that of lawyer and that of private detective.

From Project Gutenberg

In return the officials of the concern said they would put a private detective on the case, and this was done.

From Project Gutenberg

"Thank you;" he bowed over her hand, then turned to the private detective.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• detective
• gumshoe
• private eye
• private investigator
• sleuth