SHAMUSES Synonyms: 51 Similar and Opposite Words

shamuses

noun

plural of shamus, slang

as in policemen

a member of a force charged with law enforcement at the local level a hard-bitten L.A. shamus who, when he's not battling crooks, is locking horns with his superiors

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

civilians

as in detectives

a person not on the police force who investigates criminal or illicit activity or searches for missing persons he's a shamus who mostly finds evidence to use in divorce cases

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for shamuses

Noun

People began rioting in Los Angeles’ predominantly Black Watts neighborhood after a crowd watched White policemen forcefully subdue a Black man.

— USA Today, USA Today, 28 July 2026
Over the weekend, dozens of plain-clothes policemen entered the protest site and dragged Wangchuk into an ambulance.

— Omkar Khandekar, NPR, 20 July 2026

Definition of policemen

Noun

Farinacci often spent days and even weeks scouting potential fire locations, monitoring weather and wildfire data, and planning to set multiple fires to stretch firefighting resources thin, according to detectives.

— Cindy Von Quednow, CNN Money, 10 Aug. 2026
Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department detectives have launched an investigation after a man was found dead in Santa Clarita on Sunday morning.

— Dean Fioresi, CBS News, 10 Aug. 2026

Definition of detectives

Noun

The race has been shaped by the killing of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis, confrontations that were caught on camera and fueled a backlash to Trump’s immigration policies.

— ABC News, ABC News, 10 Aug. 2026
The judge also said ICE officers did not follow procedures established to ensure due process.

— Adam Thompson, CBS News, 10 Aug. 2026

Definition of officers

Noun

But Davis’s book is part of a flurry of statements and interviews that, investigators say, taken together amount to an admission he was involved in the murder.

— Andy Rose, CNN Money, 10 Aug. 2026
The boyfriend of a 2-year-old boy's mother is facing felony charges after investigators accused him of hiding the child's body in the woods behind a Marietta apartment complex and lying to police.

— CBS News Atlanta Digital Team, CBS News, 9 Aug. 2026

Definition of investigators

Noun

Bronx prosecutors took his case all the way to a jury, which rejected the cops’ version of events and acquitted him, the Daily News reported at the time.

— Kerry Burke, New York Daily News, 9 Aug. 2026
At first, everyone assumes Ji-Seok is on an extended bender or hiding from the cops.

— Ben Travers, IndieWire, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of cops

Noun

Meanwhile, private detectives probed Hadley’s vulnerabilities as a witness.

— Heidi Blake, New Yorker, 8 June 2026
The trio took the stage at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles as part of a PaleyFest event commemorating five decades of Charlie's Angels, the groundbreaking ABC series that followed a group of female private detectives.

— Joey Nolfi, Entertainment Weekly, 7 Apr. 2026

Definition of private detectives

Noun

Harry and the six other high-profile claimants failed to prove their allegations that the publisher unlawfully obtained private information through methods including private investigators, deception, phone hacking and corrupt payments.

— Erin Hill, PEOPLE, 7 July 2026
Depending on the circumstances, this may include private investigators, attorneys, cybersecurity professionals, exchanges, regulators or law enforcement agencies.

— Jon Stojan June 23, Miami Herald, 23 June 2026

Definition of private investigators

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

shamus

shamuses

shanghai

See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

Style

“Shamuses.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shamuses. Accessed 12 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

Synonyms of shamuses

noun

Example Sentences

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

gnomic

Popular in Grammar & Usage

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is that lie 'bald-faced' or 'bold-faced'?

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Popular in Wordplay

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

'Gaslighting,' 'Woke,' 'Democracy,' and Other Top Lookups

Popular

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

The Longest Long Words List

It's a Scorcher! Words for the Summer Heat

Games & Quizzes