Sam Spade

English

Proper noun

Sam Spade

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

Noun

Sam Spade (plural Sam Spades)

1. (informal) A private detective.
   • 1970, Edmund Fuller, Flight, page 98:

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

   • 1977, “Psst... Wanna Find Some Snow”, in Ski, number October:

     "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

   • 2006, Betsy Burton, The King's English: Adventures of an Independent Bookseller, page 64:

     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 […]

   • 2018, Steve Wilson, chapter 8, in Spoilt for Choice:

     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