private detective
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of private detective
First recorded in 1865–70
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.
Enter Dell Chandler, a failed English professor turned bootstrapping private detective, hired by Dr. Cutty to investigate.
From Los Angeles Times • May 12, 2026
Claude, meanwhile, having left the police to become a private detective, is obsessed with solving a string of related wartime murders, including that of Huguette’s father.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
She said a private detective hired by the family found no criminal records for a person named Paramjit Singh in the state, suggesting authorities may have mistaken him for someone else.
From BBC • Oct. 13, 2025
This much I can tell you: Colin Farrell plays a private detective in “Sugar.”
From New York Times • Apr. 5, 2024
A lawyer and a former private detective with the Burns agency, Davis had a groomed sleekness.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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.
