DETECTIVE WORK

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does detective work mean? 

• DETECTIVE WORK (noun)
  The noun DETECTIVE WORK has 1 sense:

1. a police investigation to determine the perpetrator

  Familiarity information: DETECTIVE WORK used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DETECTIVE WORK (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A police investigation to determine the perpetrator

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

detecting; detection; detective work; sleuthing

Context example:

detection is hard on the feet

Hypernyms ("detective work" is a kind of...):

police investigation; police work (the investigation of criminal activities)

 Context examples 

“This is like geological detective work,” said Dr Euan Mutch from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, and the paper’s first author.

(‘Crystal clocks’ used to time magma storage before volcanic eruptions, University of Cambridge)

“You wonder,” said my companion, “why it is that Mycroft does not use his powers for detective work. He is incapable of it.”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)