Lexic.us

Definition of Privy

1. Adjective. Hidden from general view or use. "A secret garden"

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

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

4. Noun. A small outbuilding with a bench having holes through which a user can defecate.

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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