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Definition of "private investigator" []

  • A person privately hired to do investigative or detective work. Also called private detective, private eye. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "private investigator" in a sentence
  • "The Dowler family claims a private investigator working for the paper deleted some of Milly's messages to make room for new messages."
  • "The revelation that bereaved family members may have had their mobile phone messages intercepted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator employed by the paper, in the days following the 2005 London bombings will heap further pressure on the title's owner, News International, part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire."
  • "Days later, Brooks was drafting a memo to staff – her second in a week – expressing her horror at the revelation late on Monday afternoon that journalists at the News of the World had ordered a private investigator to hack into the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's mobile phone when Brooks was editor of the paper."