Definition of Privy

1. Noun. A room or building equipped with one or more toilets.


2. Adjective. Hidden from general view or use. "A secret garden"
Exact synonyms: Secluded, Secret
Similar to: Private

3. Noun. A small outbuilding with a bench having holes through which a user can defecate.
Exact synonyms: Earth-closet, Jakes, Outhouse
Generic synonyms: Outbuilding

4. Adjective. (followed by 'to') informed about something secret or not generally known. "Privy to the details of the conspiracy"
Similar to: Informed

Definition of Privy

1. a. Of or pertaining to some person exclusively; assigned to private uses; not public; private; as, the privy purse.

2. n. 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.

Definition of Privy

1. Adjective. (context: now chiefly historical) Private, exclusive; that is one's own. ¹

2. Adjective. (context: now rare archaic) Secret, hidden, concealed. ¹

3. Adjective. With knowledge of; party to; let in on. ¹

4. Noun. an outdoor toilet; latrine; earth closet; john; johnny house. ¹

5. Noun. (legal) A partaker; one having an interest in an action, contract, etc. to which he is not himself a party. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Privy

1. private [n PRIVIES] - See also: private

Lexicographical Neighbors of Privy

privet hedge
privets
privier
privies
priviest
priviledg
privilege
privilege against self incrimination
privilege of the floor
privileged
privileges
privileging
privily
privy (current term)
privy(p)
privy council
privy councils
privy purse
privy seal
prix fixe
prizable
prize
prize-taking
prize-winning
prize money
prize ring
prize winner
prized

Literary usage of Privy

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge (1919)
"privy councillors are nominated, without patent or grant, at the pleasure of the Crown, ... The number of privy councillors is not limited by law. ..."

2. English Constitutional History from the Teutonic Conquest to the Present Time by Thomas Pitt Taswell-Langmead, Philip Arthur Ashworth (1905)
"Temple's scheme for reorganisation of the privy Council, 1679. The privy Council continued to be the Constitutional body of advisers of the king, ..."

3. The Governments of Europe. by Frederic Austin Ogg (1913)
"The privy Council survives to-day, and in both law and theory it still is the advisory body of the crown. A cabinet member possesses authority and is known ..."

4. Commentaries on the Laws of England by William Blackstone, William Carey Jones (1915)
"Privileges of privy counselors.—The privileges of privy counselors, as such, ... 4 Jurisdiction of the privy council.—The jurisdiction of the privy council ..."

5. The Works of Tennyson by Alfred Tennyson Tennyson, Hallam Tennyson Tennyson (1908)
"The Parliament, which met in 1641, had, in the presence and with the sanction of Charles, enacted that all officers of State, privy Councillors, ..."

6. The Cambridge Modern History by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton Acton, Ernest Alfred Benians, Sir Adolphus William Ward, George Walter Prothero (1908)
"The Parliament, which met in 1641, had, in the presence and with the sanction of Charles, enacted that all officers of State, privy Councillors, ..."

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