Definition of "detective" in English

noun

1. (law enforcement) A police officer tasked with collecting evidence and information in order to solve a crime; an investigator.

   • He worked as a detective with the agency for five years.

2. A person employed to find information not otherwise available to the public.

   • Had they responded this way in France or America, this wouldn't have surprised me, but wasn't everyone in England supposed to be a detective? Wasn't every crime, no matter how complex, solved in a timely fashion by either a professional or a hobbyist? That's the impression you get from British books and TV shows. Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Hetty Wainthropp, Inspector George Gently: they come from every class and corner of the country. There’s even Edith Pargeter's Brother Cadfael, a Benedictine monk who solved crimes in twelfth-century Shrewsbury. No surveillance cameras, no fingerprints, not even a telephone, and still he cracked every case that came his way.

adjective

1. Employed in detecting.