gumshoe

English

WOTD – 16 August 2010

Gumshoe (sneaker or rubber overshoe).

Etymology

gum +‎ shoe

Pronunciation

(UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌm.ʃuː/
Audio (US) (file)

Noun

gumshoe (plural gumshoes)

A sneaker or rubber overshoe.
(slang) A detective.
- 1920, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 20, in The Big-Town Round-Up:
  "Who's this gumshoe guy from the bush league tailin' us?"

Synonyms

(detective): detective, dick, private eye, sleuth

Translations

sneaker or rubber overshoe

Armenian: կրկնակոշիկ (hy) (krknakošik)
Bulgarian: гуменка f (gumenka), галош m (galoš)
Finnish: kumitossu (sneaker), kalossi (fi) (rubber overshoe)

Romanian: galoș (ro) m
Russian: гало́ша (ru) (galóša)

slang: a detective

Armenian: խուզարկու (hy) (xuzarku)
Bulgarian: детектив m (detektiv)
Finnish: kyttä (fi), dekkari (fi)
German: Schnüffler (de) m

Romanian: detectiv (ro) m
Russian: детекти́в (ru) (detektív)
Spanish: sabueso (es) m

Verb

gumshoe (third-person singular simple present gumshoes, present participle gumshoeing, simple past and past participle gumshoed)

To act as a detective.
- 1933, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Agriculture, Hearings‎, page 25:
  The next thing they did was to send a man sent down there from Baltimore and he spent a good deal of time gumshoeing around in that county trying to get another individual put in as secretary-treasurer.
- 1988 September 23, Achy Obejas, “Calendar”, in Chicago Reader:
  " But these days, more and more women are gumshoeing through the pages of murder mysteries.

Translations

to act as a detective

German: schnüffeln (de)

Anagrams

hugsome

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