shamus

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 heroes are typically amateur or private detectives, possibly quirky, often women, sometimes a couple; they aren’t likely to suffer the afflictions common to the hard-boiled shamus — depression, rage, alcoholism, untreated trauma.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 3, 2022

With a cheap business card and an equally cheap jacket and tie, he smilingly ambles it into the shamus role, knocking on doors and sniffing out leads among all the yammer and serviceable visuals.

From New York Times • Jan. 17, 2018

The film, which marked the directorial debut of screenwriter John Huston, stars a perfectly cast Bogart as San Francisco shamus Sam Spade in this near-flawless adaptation of the Dashiell Hammett novel.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 19, 2016

In Paul Thomas Anderson’s cinematic love-in “Inherent Vice,” Joaquin Phoenix plays Doc Sportello, a Los Angeles shamus in Jesus sandals trucking through the sunshine and noir like a stoner Philip Marlowe.

From New York Times • Dec. 11, 2014

I've got friends in PIB—real friends, not the shamus crowd you're acquainted with that'll take you for your last nickel and then leave you to starve.

From Bear Trap by Nourse, Alan Edward