Meaning of Sam Spade | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The fictional private detective created by Dashiell Hammett who was protagonist of The Maltese Falcon.
2. A private detective.
   informal

Examples

“Congratulations on the detective work — a real Sam Spade job.”

“"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”

“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 […]”

“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”

CEFR level