gumshoe
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.
See Examples For:
Farrell is terrific, as always, as an empathetic gumshoe investigating a trail of crime and corruption that rings true to devotees of L.A. noir, from Raymond Chandler to “Chinatown” to Jordan Harper.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 31, 2026
The cops are jaded and too easily steered toward the wrong suspects, moving the gentle citizen gumshoe to step in and offer her gifted expertise.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2026
His gumshoe, Hicks McTaggart, starts out in Depression-era Milwaukee, investigating the disappearance of the heiress to a dairy fortune.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025
Melling’s scenery-chewing portrayal of the budding writer — and, here, amateur gumshoe — is one of the film’s chief delights.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2023
In literature and in the popular imagination, the all-seeing private eye—the gumshoe, the cinder dick, the sleuthhound, the shadow—displaced the crusading sheriff as the archetype of rough justice.
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Then he gumshoed around the neighborhood and found that Ohman, though uneducated in a formal sense, was a smart man who often expressed an urge to fool the scholars.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Has that grasping old monopolist gumshoed into town again?" inquired Washburn, and promptly ordered his secretary to get Boise on the telephone.
From Five Thousand an Hour : how Johnny Gamble won the heiress by George Randolph Chester
Today there are spooky gumshoed armies of "security consultants," "rent-a-cops," "private eyes," "outside experts"—every manner of shady operator who retails in "results" and discretion.
From The Hacker Crackdown, law and disorder on the electronic frontier by Bruce Sterling
When your trades are newspapering and gumshoeing, you tend to meet interesting people from all walks of life.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 22, 2022
Before the Gibraltar meeting, Murphy had been gumshoeing through North Africa.
From Time Magazine Archive
But since last June, when the President authorized a $1,600,000 fund for radio's defense efforts, aerial gumshoeing put on seven-megacycle gum boots, established a special National Defense Operations Section to supplement FCC's routine monitoring work.
From Time Magazine Archive
His idea of Ken apparently savored too much of historical study, and not enough of gumshoeing to suit Messrs. Smart & Gingrich.
From Time Magazine Archive
Before Tim was out of the building Killen was gumshoeing after him.
From The Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine
