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sherlock

1 American  
[shur-lok] / ˈʃɜr lɒk /
Or Sherlock

noun

Informal.

  1. a private detective.

  2. a person remarkably adept at solving mysteries, especially by using insight and logical deduction.

    Who's the sherlock who can tell me where my pen is?
Sherlock 2 American  
[shur-lok] / ˈʃɜr lɒk /

noun

  1. a male given name: from an Old English word meaning “fair-haired.”

Etymology

Origin of sherlock

After Sherlock Holmes, fictitious detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle

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.

Topics: , sherlock, BBC, Greece, Memory Techniques, , This article originally appeared on .

From Salon • Feb. 9, 2014

But if the plainclothes nose around, are they going to sherlock the parish priest and the town bughunter?

From Slippy McGee, Sometimes Known as the Butterfly Man by Oemler, Marie Conway

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.