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Private   /prˈaɪvət/   Listen
adjective
Private  adj.  
1.
Belonging to, or concerning, an individual person, company, or interest; peculiar to one's self; unconnected with others; personal; one's own; not public; not general; separate; as, a man's private opinion; private property; a private purse; private expenses or interests; a private secretary.
2.
Sequestered from company or observation; appropriated to an individual; secret; secluded; lonely; solitary; as, a private room or apartment; private prayer. "Reason... then retires Into her private cell when nature rests."
3.
Not invested with, or engaged in, public office or employment; as, a private citizen; private life. "A private person may arrest a felon."
4.
Not publicly known; not open; secret; as, a private negotiation; a private understanding.
5.
Having secret or private knowledge; privy. (Obs.)
Private act or Private statute, a statute exclusively for the settlement of private and personal interests, of which courts do not take judicial notice; opposed to a general law, which operates on the whole community. In the United States Congress, similar private acts are referred to as private law and a general law as a public law.
Private nuisance or Private wrong. See Nuisance.
Private soldier. See Private, n., 5.
Private way, a right of private passage over another man's ground; also, a road on private land, contrasted with public road, which is on a public right of way.



noun
Private  n.  
1.
A secret message; a personal unofficial communication. (Obs.)
2.
Personal interest; particular business.(Obs.) "Nor must I be unmindful of my private."
3.
Privacy; retirement. (Archaic) "Go off; I discard you; let me enjoy my private."
4.
One not invested with a public office. (Archaic) "What have kings, that privates have not too?"
5.
(Mil.) A common soldier; a soldier below the grade of a noncommissioned officer.
6.
pl. The private parts; the genitals.
In private, secretly; not openly or publicly.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Private" Quotes from Famous Books



... publicly announced, was now omitted entirely—that of assault with deadly weapon, possibly with intent to kill. Even Mother Shaughnessy and Norah were silenced, and Pat Mullins put to confusion. Even the latest punctured patient at the hospital, Private Todd, had to serve as evidence in behalf of Elise, for Graham, post surgeon, had calmly declared that the same weapon that so nearly killed Pat Mullins had as nearly and neatly done the deed for Todd—the keen Apache knife ...
— An Apache Princess - A Tale of the Indian Frontier • Charles King

... previous to the Crow and Umbiqua expedition, which I have detailed, messengers had been passing between tribe and tribe, and, strange to say, they had buried all their private animosities, to form a league against the common enemy, as were considered the Shoshones. It was, no doubt, owing to this arrangement that the Crows and Umbiquas shewed themselves so hardy; but the prompt and successful retaliation of the Shoshones ...
— Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet • Captain Marryat

... to his fountain and drink, without mysteries of initiation, or formalities of licence, or concomitant nuisances of superintendence and regulation. In the Camp of Refuge of Charles Macfarlane (who has recently, in an odd way, been recalled to passing knowledge)—a full and gallant private in the corps of which Dumas himself was then colonel vice Sir Walter deceased—there is a sentence which applies admirably to Dumas himself. After a success over the other half of our ancestors, and during a supper on the conquered provant, ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury

... on the basis of equal liberty. Many cares, many labors, and may we not add, reproaches, are peculiar to us. These are the emoluments of our unsolicited stations; and with these we are content, if YOU approve our conduct. If you do not, we shall return to our private condition, with no other regret than that which will arise from our not having served you as acceptably and essentially as we wished and strove to do, though as cheerfully and faithfully ...
— Choice Specimens of American Literature, And Literary Reader - Being Selections from the Chief American Writers • Benj. N. Martin

... lot to be ordered to seize a poor man who had never been out of his house, and convey him to prison. I detested this barbarity, yet was obliged to execute it; nay, though no reward would have bribed me in a private capacity to have acted such a part, yet so much sanctity is there in the commands of a monarch or general to a soldier, that I performed it without reluctance, nor had the tears of his wife and ...
— From This World to the Next • Henry Fielding


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