as in detective
a person not on the police force who investigates criminal or illicit activity or searches for missing persons
unable to get the interest of the police, they hired a private eye to find their missing daughter
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of private eye
These private eyes spy on children in order to determine who is or isn’t living within the district’s strict attendance boundaries.
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Tim Deroche, Orange County Register, 28 Jan. 2025
In that time, Will has started over as a private eye in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.
—Ryan Schwartz, TVLine, 7 Jan. 2025
When a judge tentatively allowed the music to bang on this fall, sonic private eyes and city officials patrolled the neighborhood with microphones and decibel meters, gathering ammunition for the battle.
—Katie Thornton, Rolling Stone, 20 Dec. 2024
Most recently, the actor worked opposite Colin Farrell in Apple TV+’s twisty private eye series Sugar (2024–present).
—Madeline Cisneros, EW.com, 22 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for private eye
Recent Examples of Synonyms for private eye
Noun
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The woman showed detectives her call history and a text thread with Stumph, confirming her statement, court records said.—
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Van Buren County Sheriff's detectives took two years to put together their case.—
Noun
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On Wednesday, an investigator spied a suspicious drone over the detention center shortly before 3 a.m. and tracked it to a landing spot on top of an SUV parked just down the road.—
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However, investigators are still working to determine what sparked the violence.—
Noun
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William Hopper’s Paul Drake assisted as Mason’s go-to private detective with a knack for finding the evidence Mason and his clients needed.—
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Both Lennox and Sarah Lind, as Alex’s wife, Sam, are serious and convincing, and the musician David Yow, as an oddball private detective following in Alex’s wake, gives the movie some idiosyncratic flair.—
Noun
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As per IMDb, Spider-Noir follows: An aging and down on his luck private investigator in 1930s New York is forced to grapple with his past life as the city's one and only superhero.—
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In fact, the shadowy figures were private investigators, hired by a top racetrack in Kentucky to investigate Yakteen’s former boss – the legendary trainer Bob Baffert – to try to find evidence that the famous white-haired horseman doped his horses.—
Cite this Entry
“Private eye.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/private%20eye. Accessed 31 May. 2025.
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