detective work
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
careful investigation and analysis to solve a problem
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
điều tra và phân tích cẩn thận để giải quyết vấn đề
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: work done by a detective
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
It took some detective work to figure out who had taken the keys
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “detective work” mean?
careful investigation and analysis to solve a problem Literally: work done by a detective
Is “detective work” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.