detectiveadj.n.
/dᵻˈtɛktɪv/, U.S. /dəˈtɛktɪv/, /diˈtɛktɪv/ A. adj.
Having the character or function of detecting; serving to detect; employed for the purpose of detection.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > endeavour > searching or seeking > finding or discovery > [adjective] > serving to detect
detective1843
1843 Chambers's Jrnl. 12 54 Intelligent men have been recently selected to form a body called the ‘detective police’..at times the detective policeman attires himself in the dress of ordinary individuals.
1862 J. Skelton Nugæ Criticæ vii. 303 Every author now looks after his mind, as if he were a member of the detective police.
1882 E. P. Hood in Leisure Hour Apr. 227 Instances of the detective power of ridicule.
1882 C. H. Spurgeon Treasury of David VI. Ps. cxxii. 1 [It] is detective as to our character.
B. n.
One whose occupation it is to discover matters artfully concealed; particularly (and in the original application as short for detective policeman, or the like) a member of the police force employed to investigate specific cases, or to watch particular suspected individuals or classes of offenders. private detective, one not belonging to the police force, who in his private capacity, or as attached to a Detective Agency or Bureau, undertakes similar services for persons employing him.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > enquiry > investigation, inspection > [noun] > person conducting
searchera1382
inseerc1438
intracer?a1475
inquisitor?1504
investigator1538
peruser1549
tracer1552
scrutineer1557
examinant1587
revisitor1594
examiner?1608
examinator1612
researcher1615
indagator1620
ferret1629
pryer1674
probator1691
disquisitor1766
grubber1776
prober1777
grubbler1813
detective1850
expiscator1882
society > law > law enforcement > investigation of crime > [noun] > detective
plant1812
plain clothes1822
detective1850
plainclothesman1856
mouser1863
D.1869
sleuth1872
tec1879
dee1882
demon1889
sleuth-hound1890
split1891
fink1903
hawkshaw1903
busy1904
dick1905
gumshoe1913
Richard1914
shamus1925
cozzer1950
Five-O1983
1850 W. H. Wills Mod. Sci. Thief-taking in Househ. Words 13 July 368/1 To each division of the Force is attached two officers, who are denominated ‘detectives’.
1850 W. H. Wills Mod. Sci. Thief-taking in Househ. Words 13 July 369/1 The two Detectives of the X division.
1853 C. Dickens Bleak House xxv. 251 Detective Mr. Bucket.
1856 Ann. Reg. 185 Some London detectives were despatched, to give their keen wits to the search.
1871 B. Taylor tr. J. W. von Goethe Faust I. Pref. p. xv There are critical detectives on the track of every author.
1871 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues II. 39 Your mere detective is wonderful at suspicion and discovery, but when he has to do with good men he is at fault, foolishly imagining that everyone is as bad as himself.
1876 D. R. Fearon School Inspection §59. 90 If the inspector is to be anything more than a mere detective of faults.
Compounds
C1.
detective agency n.
ΚΠ
attributive.
1872 E. Crapsey Nether Side N.Y. 56 All the large commercial cities are now liberally provided with ‘Detective Agencies’, as they are called.
1959 Encounter 12 v. 30 The detective agency girls.
detective anecdote n.
ΚΠ
1850 C. Dickens in Househ. Words 14 Sept. 577/1 (title) Three ‘detective’ anecdotes.
detective fiction n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > novel > [noun] > crime or detective novel > collectively
crime fiction1905
detective fiction1922
whodunitry1961
1922 ‘Sapper’ Black Gang ii. 28 What I'm going to tell you now..may seem extraordinary and what one would expect in detective fiction.
1928 R. A. Knox Footsteps at Lock iii. 26 The Muse of detective fiction..cannot tell a plain unvarnished tale.
1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 6 June 316/5 This is one of the tales in which M. Simenon indulges his characteristic inquisitiveness about people while preserving the ‘puzzle’ convention of detective-fiction.
detective film n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > a film > type of film > [noun] > other types
romantic comedy1748
epic1785
pre-release1871
foreign film1899
frivol1903
dramedy1905
film loop1906
first run1910
detective film1911
colour film1912
news film1912
topical1912
cinemicrograph1913
scenic1913
sport1913
newsreel1914
serial1914
sex comedy1915
war picture1915
telefilm1919
comic1920
true crime1923
art house1925
quickie1926
turkey1927
two-reeler1928
smellie1929
disaster film1930
musical1930
feelie1931
sticky1934
action comedy1936
quota quickie1936
re-release1936
screwball comedy1937
telemovie1937
pickup1939
video film1939
actioner1940
space opera1941
telepic1944
biopic1947
kinescope1949
TV movie1949
pièce noire1951
pièce rose1951
deepie1953
misterioso1953
film noir1956
policier1956
psychodrama1956
free film1958
prequel1958
co-production1959
glossy1960
sexploiter1960
sci-fier1961
tie-in1962
chanchada1963
romcom1963
wuxia1963
chick flick1964
showreel1964
mockumentary1965
sword-and-sandal1965
schlockbuster1966
mondo1967
peplum1968
thriller1968
whydunit1968
schlocker1969
buddy-buddy movie1972
buddy-buddy film1974
buddy film1974
science-fictioner1974
screwball1974
buddy movie1975
slasher movie1975
swashbuckler1975
filmi1976
triptych1976
autobiopic1977
Britcom1977
kidflick1977
noir1977
bodice-ripper1979
chopsocky1981
date movie1983
kaiju eiga1984
screener1986
neo-noir1987
indie1990
bromance2001
hack-and-slash2002
mumblecore2005
dark fantasy2007
hack-and-slay2007
gorefest2012
kidult-
1911 C. N. Bennett et al. Handbk. Kinematogr. xiii. 100 Moreover, the bulk of modern motion picture detective films are of the Nick Carter and Sexton Blake variety.
detective force n.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > branch or part of police force > specific
water1552
armed police1787
special police1804
detective force1849
traffic police1883
vice squad1905
drug squad1913
blue force1920
ghost squad1922
flying squad1927
Sweeney1936
morality squad1945
courtesy patrol1961
strike force1961
pussy posse1963
drugs squad1965
vice1967
mobile1971
uniform branch1972
uniform1978
NCIS1991
1849 Alta California (San Francisco) 24 Dec. 3/2 The badge is of such a character that, when it becomes necessary to employ any of them [sc. policemen], as a detective force, they can be removed.
1850 C. Dickens Detective Police Party in Househ. Words 27 July 411/2 I'm an Officer in the Detective Force.
1888 A. C. Gunter Mr. Potter xx Sergeant Brackett, of the British detective force.
detective-inspector n.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > policeman > policeman of specific rank
superintendent1789
police inspector1824
police sergeant1824
sergeant1839
inspector1840
station sergeant1846
detective-sergeant1850
detective-inspector1898
desk sergeant1908
sarge1926
skipper1929
supe1977
1898 Westm. Gaz. 17 Nov. 7/2 Detective-inspector Egan said that he arrested the prisoner upon the charge.
1938 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Oct. 649/2 Some long-suffering detective-inspector at Scotland Yard.
detective novel n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > novel > [noun] > crime or detective novel
murder mystery1880
detective story1883
crime novel1884
police novel1889
roman policier1896
true crime1923
detective novel1924
whodunit1930
tec1934
police procedural1957
procedural1963
whydunit1968
1924 19th Cent. May 718 We note that the plot of a detective novel is, in effect, an argument conducted under the guise of fiction.
1942 ‘N. Blake’ in H. Haycraft Murder for Pleasure p. xxii The detective-novel proper is read almost exclusively by the upper and professional classes.
detective novelist n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > novel > [noun] > crime or detective novel > writer of
murder man1890
detectivist1892
murdermonger1900
crime writer1914
detective novelist1926
murdermongeress1957
1926 E. M. Wrong Crime & Detection p. xx One temptation the detective novelist does well to avoid.
detective-sergeant n.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > police force or the police > [noun] > policeman > policeman of specific rank
superintendent1789
police inspector1824
police sergeant1824
sergeant1839
inspector1840
station sergeant1846
detective-sergeant1850
detective-inspector1898
desk sergeant1908
sarge1926
skipper1929
supe1977
1850 W. H. Wills Mod. Sci. Thief-taking in Househ. Words 13 July 369/2 The Detective sergeant..fairly owned..that he could afford no hope of elucidating the mystery.
1969 Listener 24 Apr. 583/2 Interest centres on the man sent in to investigate, Detective-Sergeant Demosthenes de Goede.
detective service n.
ΚΠ
1848 E. C. Gaskell Mary Barton II. ii. 31 A well-known officer in the Detective Service.
detective story n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > novel > [noun] > crime or detective novel
murder mystery1880
detective story1883
crime novel1884
police novel1889
roman policier1896
true crime1923
detective novel1924
whodunit1930
tec1934
police procedural1957
procedural1963
whydunit1968
1883 A. K. Green (title) XYS, a Detective Story.
1905 G. K. Chesterton Club of Queer Trades iii. 96 The detectives in the detective stories.
1911 F. Swinnerton Casement ii. 75 ‘Douse the glim’..that old phrase in the detective stories he had read.
1962 W. H. Auden Dyer's Hand (1963) 153 The detective-story society is a society of apparently innocent individuals.
C2.
detective camera n. a term formerly used for a hand camera adapted for taking instantaneous photographs.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > photography > camera > [noun] > general types of
box camera1828
daguerreotype1839
view camera1851
pistolgraph1859
pinhole camera1861
panoramic camera1862
pantoscopic camera1865
pistolograph1866
pantoscope1879
detective camera1881
filmograph1881
photographometera1884
photochronograph1887
snap-shooter1890
stand camera1890
tele-objective camera1891
film camera1893
magazine camera1893
panoram1893
telephoto1894
mutograph1897
tele-camera1899
telephote1903
press camera1912
reflex1922
candid camera1929
minicam1935
single-lens reflex1936
plate camera1937
magic eye1938
subminiature1947
miniature1952
all-sky camera1955
microfilmer1959
stereo-camera1959
streak camera1962
gallery camera1964
SLR1964
TLR1965
spy-camera1968
pinhole1976
multi-mode1981
digicam1989
point-and-shoot1991
1881 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 28 Jan. 44/2 A form of the detective camera, in which the finding arrangement and the stock of slides are omitted, is in progress.
1882 Year Bk. Photogr. 27 Among novel apparatus we may mention..Mr. Bolas' so-called ‘Detective Camera’.
1888 Brit. Jrnl. Photogr. 18 May 305 The subject of detective cameras is capable of considerable subdivision.
1893 T. Bent Ethiopia 62 Regardless of..strangers, and my wife's detective camera.
Derivatives
deˈtectiveship n. the office or function of a detective.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > law enforcement > investigation of crime > [noun]
criminal investigation1799
detectiveship1877
detectivism1894
sleuthing1900
1877 J. Hawthorne Garth III. ix. lxxv. 184 In my amateur detectiveship.
deˈtectivist n. one who professedly treats of detectives.Apparently an isolated use.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > novel > [noun] > crime or detective novel > writer of
murder man1890
detectivist1892
murdermonger1900
crime writer1914
detective novelist1926
murdermongeress1957
1892 W. Wallace in Academy 24 Sept. 261/1 It may be hoped that Dick Donovan is the last of the detectivists in fiction.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
adj.n.1843