detective work

detective work

The act of investigating something. It can be applied to both serious and trivial situations. Nice detective work—I had a feeling Caitlin broke the vase, and now I know for sure. I'm doing my own detective work now, going through security footage to try to see who stole the car.
See also: work
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • have none of it/that
  • have/want none of it/that
  • break against
  • break against (something)
  • break on
  • break (something) on (something)
  • double back on (someone or something)
  • place with
  • pay the penalty for (something)
  • confession is good for the soul
References in periodicals archive
His detective work took him to a London auction house and a military dealer on Merseyside before he finally located the medal, which was awarded for Bravery in the Field.
Light has done a lot of detective work and creative puzzle-solving.
The highlight came in 1981 when he won the Dennis Hoban Trophy for outstanding detective work after he and other officers investigated three Huddersfield men for killing two women in Cheshire in a case known as the Boarded Barn murders.
Co-produced by the United Kingdom's Lion TV and Oregon Public Broadcasting, the series combines the latest forensic technology with old-fashioned, pavement-pounding detective work.
It was long believed that all of Eastman's music was lost, but thanks to the determined detective work of composer Mary Jane Leach and a team from New World Records, this new three-CD set presents seven of his large-scale works.
Newberry says the recovery of LKAs "is an indication to us that our decades of analysis and detective work are actually leading to closure for some families.
He has already come under the scrutiny of the investigation team and today's development came after detective work and other factors.
Just like Christie's character, 75-year-old Joan's painstaking detective work finally snared the crook - in this case financial adviser John Campion.
But there are a couple of circumstances where you need to do a little more detective work before you deadline the vehicle.
The data required to model (map out) the spread of disease over time and space require intensive "detective work," to which epidemiologists and public health officials can readily contribute.
Connecting the dots to better health requires some personal detective work. During my years of toxic waste build-up, I thought I was doing everything right: eating organic foods, exercising, trying to get enough sleep and not smoking.
The book then turns to three case studies: "Looking for Shorty," "When the Ball Fell," and "The Girl in the Park," each of which contains much detailed information about the life and times of detective work. Routine stories about good police work, as well as bad police work, and corrupt police work, can all be found within the confines of these cases.
Stuart Mitchell, 40, has named that tune after 20 years of detective work.
A stunning piece of detective work this year by Holly Jackson, a doctoral student of English at Brandeis University, revealed that based on superficial evidence [a photograph] and wrongheaded assumptions [that Kelley-Hawkins was a light-skinned black "passing" for white, an obsession of that era] scholars incorrectly assumed the author's racial identity.
Alma, who as it happens was named after the heroine of the novel, begins to do some detective work.