private eye

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.

The author of “Gravity’s Rainbow” sends a private eye on the trail of a missing heiress in a complex, comic, Prohibition-era caper.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 3, 2025

But Paco Ignacio Taibo II is best known for his fictional alter ego: Héctor Belascoarán Shayne, a one-of-a-kind private eye confronting injustice, corruption and crime in the noir depths of 1970s Mexico City.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 6, 2025

The article focused on Robert Winnett, the British journalist poised to take over The Post’s newsroom in November, and described his links to a private eye who used unethical media practices to land big exclusives.

From New York Times • Jun. 17, 2024

The great Richard Roundtree, who died this week at 81, played which private eye in five movies over a 50-year period?

From Slate • Oct. 27, 2023

During the Harding administration, in the early 1920s, the Justice Department had been packed with political cronies and unscrupulous officials, among them the head of the bureau: William Burns, the infamous private eye.

From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann