shamus
Americannoun
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a detective.
-
a police officer.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of shamus
1925–30; of obscure origin, though popularly derived from either Yiddish shames shammes or the Irish male given name Séamas
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.
Dashiell Hammett’s detective Sam Spade did his shamus business in the fogs of San Francisco, but Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe made L.A. the noir capital.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 18, 2022
With a cheap business card and an equally cheap jacket and tie, he smilingly ambles it into the shamus role, knocking on doors and sniffing out leads among all the yammer and serviceable visuals.
From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2018
The film, which marked the directorial debut of screenwriter John Huston, stars a perfectly cast Bogart as San Francisco shamus Sam Spade in this near-flawless adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2016
In Paul Thomas Anderson’s cinematic love-in “Inherent Vice,” Joaquin Phoenix plays Doc Sportello, a Los Angeles shamus in Jesus sandals trucking through the sunshine and noir like a stoner Philip Marlowe.
From New York Times • Dec. 11, 2014
I've got friends in PIB—real friends, not the shamus crowd you're acquainted with that'll take you for your last nickel and then leave you to starve.
From Bear Trap by Nourse, Alan Edward
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.
