private eye

noun

, Slang.

1. a private detective.

private eye

noun

1. informal.
   a private detective

Word History and Origins

Origin of private eye¹

1935–40; eye, allusive phonetic rendering of I, abbreviation of investigator

Idioms and Phrases

A privately employed detective, as opposed to one working for the police or another authority. For example, The children loved stories about private eyes, and Janey wanted to become one . This expression comes from the term private investigator , the “i” of investigator being changed to “eye,” which plays on the idea of a person looking into things. [1930s]

Example Sentences

The standard assignments, and the ones that truly built Kroll’s fortune, are undertaken for law firms and corporations, which regularly hire private eyes to gather evidence in legal disputes, run background checks or scope out takeover targets.

From Time

The idea of forcing private eyes to disclose their clients and tactics to a federal regulator have come up in some recent books and opinion pieces.

From Time

In a sense, they are the private eyes of the state’s public data, as they investigate the backstories of new coronavirus cases displayed each day on the Illinois Department of Public Health’s dashboard.

From ProPublica

His college classmate, Bill Marshall, is a South Florida private eye.

From The Daily Beast

Johnny Depp has a pretty sizeable role in Tusk as the Montreal private eye Guy LaPointe.

From The Daily Beast

The hero is Lucas Spero, a veteran of the wars in the Middle East and a tough guy private eye.

From The Daily Beast

And Cormoran Strike is a private eye whose company I would share again no matter whose name is on the dust jacket.

From The Daily Beast

His widow gave the private eye a box full of tapes marked “JACKSON” that her husband had been working on.

From The Daily Beast

I felt like flashing a twenty at him like a private eye did in the old tough-books, but I knew it wouldn't work.

From Project Gutenberg

Morays professions to Elizabeth may have been a blind, but his letters for Marys private eye have a more genuine air.

From Project Gutenberg

In his pocket was a great bunch of newspaper clippings, intended for the private eye of the new Mrs. De Foe's one-time secretary.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• inquiry agent
• P.I.
• private detective
• private dick
• private investigator
• sleuth