private detective

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

private detective (plural private detectives)

1. Person who is not a government official who is hired to provide information about a person or group that is not widely available
   • 1946, The Big Sleep (motion picture), spoken by Vivian (Lauren Bacall):

     So you're a private detective? I didn't know they existed, except in books, or else they were greasy little men snooping around hotel corridors.

Synonyms

• dick
• gumshoe
• PI
• private dick
• private eye
• private investigator
• Sam Spade
• shamus
• snoop

Translations

person who is not a government official who is hired to provide information about a person or group that is not widely available

• Afrikaans: privaatspeurder
• Catalan: detectiu privat m, investigador privat m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 私家偵探 / 私家侦探 (si¹ gaa¹ zing¹ taam³)

  Mandarin: 私人偵探 / 私人侦探 (sīrén zhēntàn)

• Czech: soukromý detektiv m, soukromé očko n
• Danish: privatdetektiv c
• Dutch: privédetective (nl) m
• Estonian: eradetektiiv
• Finnish: yksityisetsivä (fi)
• French: détective privé (fr) m, privé (fr) m
• German: Privatdetektiv (de) m, Schnüffler (de) m
• Greek: ιδιωτικός ερευνητής m (idiotikós erevnitís)
• Hungarian: magánnyomozó (hu), magándetektív (hu)
• Japanese: 探偵 (ja) (たんてい, tantei)
• Korean: 탐정 (tamjeong)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: privatetterforsker c

• Polish: prywatny detektyw m pers
• Portuguese: detetive particular m or f
• Romanian: detectiv particular
• Russian: ча́стный детекти́в m (částnyj detektív), ча́стный сы́щик m (částnyj sýščik)
• Slovene: zasebni detektiv m
• Spanish: detective privado (es) m, investigador privado (es) m
• Swedish: privatdeckare (sv) c
• Turkish: özel dedektif (tr), özel ajan
• Ukrainian: приватний детектив m (pryvatnyj detektyv)