private dick
4
8.8
- noun
- /ˈpraɪvɪt dɪk/
- Archaic
:
detective privado
- As a private dick, he solved many mysteries that the police could not.
- a black private dick
Examples
-
I had to hire a private dick to catch him in the act.
-
Word is he turned from private dick to gun-for-hire after what they did to his family.
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I'm a private dick on a case.
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A private dick ain't no cop.
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He's a private dick now.
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Got a private dick tailing him.
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I'm not one of these cream-puff, sit-behind-a-desk private dicks.
-
"Roy Knable, private dick."
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I had to hire a private dick to investigate the case discreetly.
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She called a private dick to find out if her suspicions were true.
Synonyms
64
3.7
A person hired to find facts about crimes or private matters who is not a police officer
30
3.4
A person who is not a police officer and is paid to investigate crimes
24
4.2
A person hired to find out information for someone, often about crimes
5
8.4
A detective who works quietly and follows people to find facts
How Formal
64
3.7
30
3.4
- Informal
24
4.2
- Archaic
4
8.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'private investigator' follows directly from combining 'private' (not public/for a particular person) with 'dick' defined here as a colloquial term for a detective, so the sense is compositionally predictable. It is informal/colloquial and 'dick' has other slang senses that may confuse learners, but given the detective sense of the constituent, the expression is transparent.
Etymology
Private dick comes from shortening 'private detective': the word private shows he works alone and the common name dick was used for an ordinary man, so people pictured a secret man called dick doing the investigating. That's why private dick now means 'private investigator'.