as in detective
a person not on the police force who investigates criminal or illicit activity or searches for missing persons
the couple paid a gumshoe to look for their missing son
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of gumshoe
Io is a world-weary gumshoe who can see all the threads that bind mortals to their fates and uses this unusual perception to solve mysteries and crimes.
—
John Wiswell, People.com, 3 July 2025
The platform that made a gumshoe as flimsy as Benoit Blanc the center of his own franchise owes her all that and more.
—Judy Berman, TIME, 20 Mar. 2025
Greenspan’s elastic voice and ceaselessly expressive hands also turn him into Ulysses—a church organist from the Faulkner south whose fanatical devotion to Theda led him, like Iras, straight to her door—and into Detective Finale, Iras’s gumshoe father who’s on the case of their disappearance.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2024
Welcome back, Charlie Cale. Natasha Lyonne is back as TV’s favorite gumshoe detective in the first teaser for Poker Face season two, and the footage teases the roster of high-wattage guest stars who have been brought in to play in Charlie’s murder mystery sandbox when the series returns.
—Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for gumshoe
John Wiswell, People.com, 3 July 2025
The platform that made a gumshoe as flimsy as Benoit Blanc the center of his own franchise owes her all that and more.
—Judy Berman, TIME, 20 Mar. 2025
Greenspan’s elastic voice and ceaselessly expressive hands also turn him into Ulysses—a church organist from the Faulkner south whose fanatical devotion to Theda led him, like Iras, straight to her door—and into Detective Finale, Iras’s gumshoe father who’s on the case of their disappearance.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 14 Feb. 2024
Welcome back, Charlie Cale. Natasha Lyonne is back as TV’s favorite gumshoe detective in the first teaser for Poker Face season two, and the footage teases the roster of high-wattage guest stars who have been brought in to play in Charlie’s murder mystery sandbox when the series returns.
—Jackie Strause, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for gumshoe
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gumshoe
Noun
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Scott, McDonald and Neary were arrested, but Rackauckas and a Fullerton police detective persuaded Neary to testify against the other two men, according to the motion.—
Tony Saavedra,
Oc Register,
17 Sep. 2025
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Reigle and her team tested about a dozen formulations and viscosities, playing detective to figure out where a whole host of issues was coming from.—
Megan McIntyre,
Allure,
16 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Boelter’s motivation remains unclear, but investigators found a one-and-a-half-page letter, described as rambling and difficult to read, that was ascribed to him.—
Brady Knox,
The Washington Examiner,
16 Sep. 2025
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One of the main enforcers of H-2A rules, the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division, last year had one of the lowest levels of investigators since the H-2A program was launched in the 1980s, Rutgers University researchers found.—
Max Blau,
ProPublica,
16 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Gumshoe.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gumshoe. Accessed 21 Sep. 2025.
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