private eye

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private eye

slang A private investigator or detective. "Eye" is a pun on the letter "i" in "investigator." The disgraced police detective moved to another state and started a business as a private eye. It turned out they'd hired a private eye to keep tabs on her after she left the law firm.
See also: eye, private
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

private eye

A privately employed detective, as opposed to one working for the police or another authority. For example, The children loved stories about private eyes, and Janey wanted to become one. This expression comes from the term private investigator, the "i" of investigator being changed to "eye," which plays on the idea of a person looking into things. [1930s]
See also: eye, private
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

a ˌprivate ˈeye

(informal) a detective who is not in the police, but who can be employed to find out information, find a missing person, follow somebody, etc: They hired a private eye to look for more evidence.
See also: eye, private
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

private eye

n. a detective who is licensed to work privately rather than for a police department. I worked for a while as a private eye.
See also: eye, private
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • a private eye
  • gumshoe
  • hawkshaw
  • shammus
  • shamus
  • catch at
  • catch at (something)
  • a mile off
  • miles away
References in periodicals archive
“A mention in Private Eye - a magazine that I, for one, have enjoyed reading over many years - is quite an accolade.
He revealed: "I've always fancied playing a private eye, ever since I saw Jack Nicholson as Jake Gittes in Chinatown."
Adam Macqueen works for Private Eye. His book is not so much a history of the magazine, as Patrick Marnham's was in 1982 to celebrate its 21st anniversary, as an alphabetical snapshot of events, written in the form of an encyclopaedia.
Private Eye is a relatively small operation run from London offices with a permanent staff of about 20 and a "huge number" of freelancers.
Few of those whose scandals, gaffes and blunders have been ex-x posed this year have escaped mentions in the Private Eye Annual 2009.
Private Eye was founded by four old boys of Shrewsbury School--Christopher Booker (editor 1961-63), Paul Foot (nephew of the politician Michael Foot), Richard Ingrams (editor 1963-87) and Willie Rushton, all of whom had worked on the school magazine, The Salopian.
He has written for everybody, but most notably the satirical magazine Private Eye where these sharp and funny parodies originated.
Paying tribute, Private Eye editor Ian Hislop said: ``He was a tremendous journalist and he will be a huge loss.
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency's logo was a large unblinking eye, inspiring the term "private eye." Pinkerton believed a good detective should have the following characteristics:
The idea is to insulate CEOs--under the privileged claim of attorney-client work product--from the hands-on private eye work, some of which can be messy.
Somewhere between a real-life investigative reporter and a fictional private eye (a composite of Spanish writer Manuel Vazquez Montalban and his character Pepe Carvalho comes to mind), Garaicoa tracks his subjects from one continent to another, prying into their pasts, analyzing their presents, imagining their futures with a compelling mix of determination and (self-) derision.
European systems integrator Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY) is facing a financial slapped wrist for a recent foray into less-than-conventional advertising methods, according to a recent story in satirical magazine Private Eye.
Marcus suggests Randy hire a private eye to find out if his wife is having an affair.
Author Cathy Cole's second novel - 'Skin Deep' - features the return of Nicola Sharpe, a crime-fighting private eye.
Mancuso played a master-of-disguise private eye, a fore-runner of his Stingray character a decade later.