private detective

See private investigator.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

private detective

(Law) an individual privately employed to investigate a crime, keep watch on a suspected person, or make other inquiries. Also called: private investigator

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

private detective - someone who can be employed as a detective to collect information

private eye, private investigator, shamus, sherlock, operative, PI

detective - an investigator engaged or employed in obtaining information not easily available to the public

hotel detective, house detective - a private detective employed by a hotel or retail store

inquiry agent - a private detective

store detective - a private detective employed by a merchant to stop pilferage

private detective

noun private investigator, detective, private eye (informal), sleuth (informal), gumshoe (U.S. & Canad.), private dick (U.S. & Canad.) She hired a private detective to search for evidence.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

soukromý detektiv

privé

investigatore privato

zasebni detektiv

private detective

private investigator n → investigatore/trice or detective m/f inv privato/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

The aid of the Pinkertons and of countless private detective agencies was called in, and in addition to this thousands were upon our payroll.

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With this object I engaged an agent from a private detective firm, who entered my husband's house as a secretary--it was your second secretary, Sergius, the one who left you so hurriedly.

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At that moment the Fynes, still at the window and watching like a pair of private detectives, saw a man with a long grey beard and a jovial face go up the steps helping himself with a thick stick, and knock at the door.

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But there was also about him an indescribable air which no mechanic could have acquired in the practice of his handicraft however dishonestly exercised: the air common to men who live on the vices, the follies, or the baser fears of mankind; the air of moral nihilism common to keepers of gambling hells and disorderly houses; to private detectives and inquiry agents; to drink sellers and, I should say, to the sellers of invigorating electric belts and to the inventors of patent medicines.

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* Originally, they were private detectives; but they quickly became hired fighting men of the capitalists, and ultimately developed into the Mercenaries of the Oligarchy.

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While Insp Twynholm says he does not agree with villagers' claims that they only see a community beat bobby "once in a blue moon", he welcomes the plan to engage private detectives to gather evidence against those suspected of anti-social behaviour.

Police welcome for village private cops; CHIEF SAYS HE WILL WORK HAND-IN-HAND WITH AGENCY CHOSEN BY PARISH

A TEAM of private detectives was drafted in by a local council to prove a large family did not need TWO houses to live in.

Private eyes probe house

The other two private detectives -- Neeraj Nayar and Nitesh Singh -- were, however, remanded in judicial custody.

Custody of detective in Jaitley case extended

"We have had to take the matter into our own hands because the police were not doing very much," she said.The private detective has received threats for his troubles," she added.

Sir Ian Botham hires private detective to find lost dog

Newspaper reporters are reckoned to spend their time chasing fire engines while private detectives are expected to have their cars trashed by the cheating husbands they expose.

Swap your job title to save pounds pounds pounds pounds s

Most private detectives are former police officers dealing with corporate and insurance fraud, matrimonial cases and missing people.

Detective wants protection

He said the hiring of a private detective was a measure of the council's determination to track down offenders, but was intended mainly as a deterrent.

Private eyes hired to catch tippers