Adjacent Words

Privy definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PRIV'Y, a. [L. privus. See Private.]
1. Private; pertaining to some person exclusively; assigned to private uses; not public; as the privy purse; the privy confer of a king.
2. Secret; clandestine; not open or public; as a privy attempt to kill one.
3. Private; appropriated to retirement; not shown; not open for the admission of company; as a privy chamber. Ezek 21.
4. Privately knowing; admitted to the participation of knowledge with another of a secret transaction.
He would rather lose half of his kingdom than be privy to such a secret.
Myself am one made privy to the plot.
His wife also being privy to it. Acts 5.
5. Admitted to secrets of state. The privy council of a king consists of a number of distinguished persons selected by him to advice him in the administration of the government.
A privy verdict, is one given to the judge out of court, which is of no force unless afterward affirmed by a public verdict in court.
PRIV'Y, n. In law, a partaker; a person having an interest in any action or thing; as a privy in blood. Privies are of four kinds; privies in blood, as the heir to his father; privies in representation, as executors and administrators to the deceased; privies in estate, as he in reversion and he in remainder; donor and donee; lessor and lessee; privy in tenure, as the lord in escheat.
1. A necessary house.
Privy chamber, in Great Britain, the private apartment in a royal residence or mansion. Gentlemen of the privy chamber are servants of the king who are to wait and attend on him and the queen at court, in their diversions, etc. They are forty eight in number, under the lord chamberlain.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: hidden from general view or use; "a privy place to rest and think"; "a secluded romantic spot"; "a secret garden" [syn: privy, secluded, secret]
2: (followed by `to') informed about something secret or not generally known; "privy to the details of the conspiracy" n
1: a room or building equipped with one or more toilets [syn: toilet, lavatory, lav, can, john, privy, bathroom]
2: a small outbuilding with a bench having holes through which a user can defecate [syn: outhouse, privy, earth-closet, jakes]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English prive, from Anglo-French privé, from Latin privatus private Date: 14th century 1. a. private, withdrawn b. secret 2. belonging or relating to a person in one's individual rather than official capacity 3. admitted as one sharing in a secret <privy to the conspiracy> • privily adverb II. noun (plural privies) Date: 14th century 1. a. a small building having a bench with holes through which the user may defecate or urinate b. toilet 3b 2. a person having a legal interest of privity

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 (foll. by to) sharing in the secret of (a person's plans etc.). 2 archaic hidden, secret. --n. (pl. -ies) 1 US or archaic a lavatory. 2 Law a person having a part or interest in any action, matter, or thing. Phrases and idioms: Privy Council 1 (in the UK) a body of advisers appointed by the sovereign (now chiefly on an honorary basis and including present and former government ministers etc.). 2 usu. hist. a sovereign's or governor-general's private counsellors. privy counsellor (or councillor) a private adviser, esp. a member of a Privy Council. privy purse Brit. 1 an allowance from the public revenue for the monarch's private expenses. 2 the keeper of this. privy seal (in the UK) a seal formerly affixed to documents that are afterwards to pass the Great Seal or that do not require it. Derivatives: privily adv. Etymology: ME f. OF privé f. L privatus PRIVATE

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Privy Priv"y, a. [F. priv['e], fr. L. privatus. See Private.] 1. Of or pertaining to some person exclusively; assigned to private uses; not public; private; as, the privy purse. `` Privee knights and squires.'' --Chaucer. 2. Secret; clandestine. `` A privee thief.'' --Chaucer. 3. Appropriated to retirement; private; not open to the public. `` Privy chambers.'' --Ezek. xxi. 14. 4. Admitted to knowledge of a secret transaction; secretly cognizant; privately knowing. His wife also being privy to it. --Acts v. 2. Myself am one made privy to the plot. --Shak. Privy chamber, a private apartment in a royal residence. [Eng.] Privy council (Eng. Law), the principal council of the sovereign, composed of the cabinet ministers and other persons chosen by the king or queen. --Burrill. Privy councilor, a member of the privy council. Privy purse, moneys set apart for the personal use of the monarch; also, the title of the person having charge of these moneys. [Eng.] --Macaulay. Privy seal or signed, the seal which the king uses in grants, etc., which are to pass the great seal, or which the uses in matters of subordinate consequence which do not require the great seal; also, elliptically, the principal secretary of state, or person intrusted with the privy seal. [Eng.] Privy verdict, a verdict given privily to the judge out of court; -- now disused. --Burrill.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Privy Priv"y, n.; pl. Privies. 1. (Law) A partaker; a person having an interest in any action or thing; one who has an interest in an estate created by another; a person having an interest derived from a contract or conveyance to which he is not himself a party. The term, in its proper sense, is distinguished from party. --Burrill. Wharton. 2. A necessary house or place; a backhouse.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you are privy to something secret, you have been allowed to know about it. (FORMAL) Only three people, including a policeman, will be privy to the facts. ADJ: v-link ADJ to n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. a. 1. Individual, special, private, personal, peculiar, particular. 2. Secret, clandestine. 3. Cognizant of acquainted with. 4. Private, retired, sequestered. II. n. Necessary, back-house, jakes, water-closet.

Moby Thesaurus

WC, alive to, anonymous, appreciative of, apprised of, awake to, aware of, back-door, backhouse, backstairs, basement, bathroom, behind the curtain, behind the scenes, bog, buried, can, clandestine, closet, cognizant of, comfort station, concealed, conscious of, convenience, covert, crapper, earth closet, feline, furtive, head, hep to, hidden, hidlings, hole-and-corner, hugger-mugger, in the know, in the secret, incognito, informed of, inmost, innermost, interior, intimate, inward, isolated, jakes, john, johnny, johnny house, latrine, lavatory, let into, loo, mindful of, necessary, no stranger to, obscured, office, on to, outhouse, personal, powder room, private, privileged, privy to, quiet, rest room, retired, secluded, secret, seized of, sensible of, sensible to, sequestered, shifty, shrouded, skulking, slinking, slinky, sly, sneaking, sneaky, stealthy, streetwise, surreptitious, toilet, toilet room, undeceived, under-the-counter, under-the-table, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded, unobtrusive, urinal, washroom, water closet, wise to, withdrawn