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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Examples of gumshoe in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Hm! What saves the day is a combination of technological tools of widely varying vintages, good old gumshoe detective work, and Elsbeth’s trademark intuitive leaps.
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Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 9 May 2024
Although much of the establishment has been left wringing its hands about what to do—how to ferret out fake news and those who produce it—there are already tools and systems to help digital investigations and gumshoe reporters connect the dots and discover scams.
—Martin J. O'Malley and Peter L. Levin, Foreign Affairs, 5 Jan. 2017
On the surface, Sugar is the story of John Sugar (Farrell), a dapper gumshoe who tracks down missing people on behalf of an elite clientele.
—Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Mar. 2024
Solving murders regularly wears out our culture’s best gumshoes: Think of bedraggled Sergeant Catherine Cawood of Happy Valley, or Henning Mankell’s series about the Swedish inspector Kurt Wallander, who even brews coffee with an air of quiet desperation.
—Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 11 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for gumshoe 
Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 9 May 2024
Although much of the establishment has been left wringing its hands about what to do—how to ferret out fake news and those who produce it—there are already tools and systems to help digital investigations and gumshoe reporters connect the dots and discover scams.
—Martin J. O'Malley and Peter L. Levin, Foreign Affairs, 5 Jan. 2017
On the surface, Sugar is the story of John Sugar (Farrell), a dapper gumshoe who tracks down missing people on behalf of an elite clientele.
—Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Mar. 2024
Solving murders regularly wears out our culture’s best gumshoes: Think of bedraggled Sergeant Catherine Cawood of Happy Valley, or Henning Mankell’s series about the Swedish inspector Kurt Wallander, who even brews coffee with an air of quiet desperation.
—Hillary Kelly, The Atlantic, 11 Mar. 2024
See all Example Sentences for gumshoe
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'gumshoe.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Gumshoe.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gumshoe. Accessed 5 Nov. 2024.
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