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.

Have the world-weary shamus and the former Aztec capital lost their noir juju?

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 6, 2025

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

And as the Honolulu-based shamus Thomas Magnum, a journeyman actor named Tom Selleck made himself a star on the strength of a twinkling smile and a modest gift for self-deprecating humor.

From New York Times • Sep. 23, 2018

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