Sam Spade

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

plural Sam Spades

1. informalA private detective.

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

   1970, Edmund Fuller, Flight, page 98

   3 more examples

   "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

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

   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 […]

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

   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

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