Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
Sam Spade en · NOUN
Meanings
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(informal) A private detective.
Congratulations on the detective work — a real Sam Spade job.
1970, Edmund Fuller, Flight, page 98:"To do a real Sam Spade, phone a bar near the resort. The ski bum who answers the phone will tell it as he sees it
1977, “Psst... Wanna Find Some Snow”, in Ski, number October:I reckon like I'm some kind of Sam Spade here. I've put to one side the main plot and concentrated instead on the key character, following him to get some idea of his comings and goings
2018, Steve Wilson, chapter 8, in Spoilt for Choice:First we tried to hire a private detective […]. Next we tried amateurs, two college students out to make their fortune as modern-day Sam Spades. They had obviously watched too much noir TV […]
2006, Betsy Burton, The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller, page 64:
Forms
wikipedia: Sam Spade
Sam Spade en · PROPN
Meanings
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The fictional private detective created by Dashiell Hammett who was protagonist of The Maltese Falcon.
wikipedia: Sam Spade