How to Use private eye in a Sentence

private eye

noun
  • Was the victim, an out-of-town private eye, killed by a bear or a man?
    — Tom Nolan, WSJ, 10 Dec. 2020
  • Moura sat down with the private eyes who had been working the case for nearly a decade.
    — CBS News, 19 May 2018
  • Moura sat down with the private eyes who had been working the case for nearly a decade.
    — CBS News, 6 July 2019
  • The old private eye office was maybe 600 square feet in size.
    — Larry Buchanan, New York Times, 11 Mar. 2023
  • What Bardo learned from a private eye, stalkers can now find with a click.
    — Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2024
  • Carmack hired a private eye last year to follow and record the mayor’s movements away from city hall.
    — Joe Guillen, Detroit Free Press, 23 Dec. 2019
  • His brother told them that Uman was in the Tennyson doing private eye work.
    — Lawrence Mower, miamiherald, 26 Jan. 2018
  • Both characters were private eyes, and Blessing's could shrink in size to six inches.
    — Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Dec. 2017
  • Sally pauses her work as Marty holds court, sharing war stories from his decades as a private eye.
    — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 5 Nov. 2025
  • But his tenacious and loopy ex-wife, the private eye Fiona (Gordon), could foil their master plan.
    — Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 30 Aug. 2024
  • In that time, Will has started over as a private eye in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn.
    — Ryan Schwartz, TVLine, 7 Jan. 2025
  • Tell me about the creation of the private eye Frank Burly, the lead character in all but two of your novels.
    — Mike Sacks, The New Yorker, 2 May 2021
  • That's where a private eye working for Kerri discovered the couple.
    — Peter Van Sant, CBS News, 4 July 2020
  • In the era of the heroic private eye, when cops worked in concert with them and often deferred to them, few loomed larger than Burns.
    — Christopher Goffard, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2024
  • Since then, Parks has dated casually, but she's mostly kept her romances away from the private eye.
    — Dave Quinn, Peoplemag, 15 Feb. 2024
  • The report also indicates the two have taken care to keep their romance out of the private eye for what seems to be a substantial amount of time.
    — Lissete Lanuza Sáenz, StyleCaster, 24 Oct. 2024
  • All the Chandler books are great, but there’s something about the private eye that’s very similar to the comedian.
    — Matt Grobar, Deadline, 9 July 2024
  • Armstrong is not a cop or a private eye but a pest removal specialist who once served hard time for feeding the hand of a poacher to an alligator.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 25 Aug. 2020
  • Verlander and Upton met while filming a commercial a few years ago and were unable to keep their romance out of the private eye.
    — Kirkland Crawford, Detroit Free Press, 2 Nov. 2017
  • Starring Gene Hackman as a private eye hired to track down a teenager, played by Melanie Griffith.
    — Nina Metz, chicagotribune.com, 14 Sep. 2017
  • Qualley will play a private eye, Plaza will star as a mysterious woman and Evans will portray the leader of a cult.
    — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 24 Jan. 2024
  • No major case in Neptune would be complete without the most annoying and abrasive private eye jumping in on the action.
    — Sydney Bucksbaum, EW.com, 20 July 2019
  • John Oates is proud of his time as one half of the musical duo Hall & Oates, but these days his private eyes are looking forward, not back.
    — Jessica Wang, EW.com, 27 Dec. 2023
  • The private eye drove to Black Earth — about 70 miles west of Watertown — to talk with the waitresses.
    — Gina Barton, jsonline.com, 20 Sep. 2017
  • Her character, Sabina, is a Park Avenue rich kid who went rogue and became a superspy/private eye.
    — Michael Phillips, chicagotribune.com, 12 Nov. 2019
  • Encyclopedia Brown was an 11-year-old private eye who worked out of his garage, and the kids from his neighborhood could come and hire him for a quarter.
    — James Hibberd, EW.com, 12 Sep. 2019
  • Los Angeles, Reckless centers on a private eye called Ethan Reckless who’ll take care of problems … for a price.
    — Graeme McMillan, The Hollywood Reporter, 6 Aug. 2020
  • In this turn, kick-ass private eye Cass must find a missing teenage girl in the middle of a Midwestern winter before the Bad Guys find her.
    — Ew Staff, EW.com, 14 July 2021
  • Inspired by her father’s work as a private eye, Eliza (Phillips) has spent the last six seasons breaking the glass ceiling while solving countless mysteries.
    — Denise Petski, Deadline, 4 Mar. 2026
  • He was intrigued by the private eye character, envisioning the role as a Sydney Greenstreet type with a Panama suit and hat.
    — Chris Koseluk, The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Mar. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'private eye.' 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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