Definition of Detective

Detective

Fitted for, or skilled in, detecting; employed in detecting crime or criminals; as, a detective officer.

One who business it is so detect criminals or discover matters of secrecy.

Related Definitions:

As, Business, Crime, Detect, Detecting, Detective, Discover, Employed, Fitted, For, In, Is, It, Of, Officer, One, Or, Secrecy, Skilled, So, Who

Detective Quotations

A really good detective never gets married.
Raymond Chandler

It is ridiculous to set a detective story in New York City. New York City is itself a detective story.
Agatha Christie

If your neighbors think you're a detective because a cop always brings you home, you might be a redneck.
Jeff Foxworthy

Every man at the bottom of his heart believes that he is a born detective.
John Buchan

It means that no matter what you write, be it a biography, an autobiography, a detective novel, or a conversation on the street, it all becomes fiction as soon as you write it down.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante

I went to the premiere of The Detective with Sinatra, and perhaps people jumped to conclusions. He was very protective towards me and never came on to me sexually.
Jacqueline Bisset

Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.
Arthur C. Clarke

There certainly does seem a possibility that the detective story will come to an end, simply because the public will have learnt all the tricks.
Dorothy L. Sayers

Eventually I would like to touch all the genres. I would like to do some detective stories, and I want to do a Western. I would want to do humorous Westerns.
Sergio Aragones

If I'm home with no chore at hand, and a package of books has come, the television set and the chess board and the unanswered mail will have to manage without me if one of the books is a detective story.
Rex Stout

As a professional writer of detective stories, I string along with the ballplayers. I love a ball game.
Rex Stout

To read of a detective's daring finesse or ingenious stratagem is a rare joy.
Rex Stout

I think like a detective.
Laurell K. Hamilton

But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.
Peter Shaffer

I am a writer. I could not afford to take 15 months off from my writing career to play detective.
James Ellroy

Certainly going back to Sherlock Holmes we have a tradition of forensic science featured in detective stories.
Jeffery Deaver

Dad made it to Gold Shield Detective, so he always busted Robin, my oldest brother, and me. Always got caught, whatever we were doing.
Kevin Eubanks

I really believe that studying organization, even in the form of studying detective story organization, is very, very valuable for a playwright, a budding playwright.
Peter Shaffer

I didn't know I was doing film noir, I thought they were detective stories with low lighting!
Marie Windsor

I think these days an SF connection would be a boost to other books; I'm sure more people have read my two little detective puzzles because of the SF connection.
John Sladek

I enjoy doing the research of nonfiction; that gives me some pleasure, being a detective again.
Joseph Wambaugh

I play a detective, very close to myself actually.
Jon Voight

I did my very first film with Kirk in Detective Story when he was the greatest, greatest star in the world. I fell in love with him, had a crush on him then.
Lee Grant

While I was in jail, they handcuffed me and took me to a backroom, where a detective from the FBI and a Secret Service agent were, and they interrogated me for about three or four hours.
Sherman Austin

I have never read horror, nor do I consider The Exorcist to be such, but rather as a suspenseful supernatural detective story, or paranormal police procedural.
William Peter Blatty

The surprise with which a detective novel concludes should set up tragic vibrations which run backward through the entire structure.
Ross MacDonald

The thought of playing a New York detective scared the hell out of me. I didn't know if people would believe me in the role just because of my physicality, which made me want to do it even more.
Charlotte Ross

If you think about it, the historian's task is like that of the detective.
David Herbert Donald

I know what kind of things I myself have been irritated by in detective stories. They are often about one or two persons, but they don't describe anything in the society outside.
Steig Larsson

A detective sees death in all the various forms at least five times a week.
Evan Hunter

More Detective Quotations

Detective Translations

detective in Dutch is detective, rechercheur
detective in German is Detektiv
detective in Norwegian is detektiv
detective in Portuguese is detetive
detective in Spanish is detective
detective in Swedish is detektiv

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