From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdetectivede‧tec‧tive /dɪˈtektɪv/ ●●○ AWL noun [countable] 1 SCPa police officer whose job is to discover information about crimes and catch criminals → store detective2 (also private detective)BOFIND OUT someone who is paid to discover information about someone or something She hired a detective to find out if her husband was having an affair.3 → detective work4 → detective story/novel etc
Examples from the Corpus
detective• Detectives made a TV appeal for anyone with any information about the crime to contact them.• The customers say you'd have to be a detective to make sense of it.• I'm a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?• Anyone with information is being asked to call Detective Mike Place.• Let me make sure I understand you, officer-mister detective.• a private detective• The lock snapped and the detective levered up the bottom section.• Furthermore, the detectives are no longer in that basic symbol of police identity - the uniform.• Form is one of the hidden assets of the detective story.• Unless she and Mr Greenleaf decided to stay to see what the detective was going to do with him.• He was a very intelligent and perceptive young detective. 