DETECTIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does detective mean? 

• DETECTIVE (noun)
  The noun DETECTIVE has 2 senses:

1. a police officer who investigates crimes

2. an investigator engaged or employed in obtaining information not easily available to the public

  Familiarity information: DETECTIVE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DETECTIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A police officer who investigates crimes

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

detective; investigator; police detective; tec

Hypernyms ("detective" is a kind of...):

officer; police officer; policeman (a member of a police force)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "detective"):

dick; gumshoe; hawkshaw (someone who is a detective)

plainclothesman (a detective who wears civilian clothes on duty)

tracer (an investigator who is employed to find missing persons or missing goods)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An investigator engaged or employed in obtaining information not easily available to the public

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("detective" is a kind of...):

investigator (someone who investigates)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "detective"):

operative; PI; private detective; private eye; private investigator; shamus; sherlock (someone who can be employed as a detective to collect information)

sleuth; sleuthhound (a detective who follows a trail)

 Context examples 

You wish to employ me as a consulting detective?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The astonished detective read the note aloud.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He has his own little methods, which are, if he won’t mind my saying so, just a little too theoretical and fantastic, but he has the makings of a detective in him.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Why, Gregson!” said my companion as he shook hands with the Scotland Yard detective.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“This is like geological detective work,” said Dr Euan Mutch from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, and the paper’s first author.

(‘Crystal clocks’ used to time magma storage before volcanic eruptions, University of Cambridge)

Detectives often find clues to cold cases during Mercury retrograde, always a plus.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

“He suspects that we are detectives,” I suggested.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

So you have instructed a detective?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Our official detectives may blunder in the matter of intelligence, but never in that of courage.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He made a sweeping bow to the three of us and walked quietly off in the custody of the detective.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)