| Private | n. 1. A secret message; a personal unofficial communication. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Personal interest; particular business.[ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ] Nor must I be unmindful of my private. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. Privacy; retirement. [ Archaic ] “Go off; I discard you; let me enjoy my private.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ] 4. One not invested with a public office. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ] What have kings, that privates have not too? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ] 5. (Mil.) A common soldier; a soldier below the grade of a noncommissioned officer. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ] 6. pl. The private parts; the genitals. [ 1913 Webster ]
In private, secretly; not openly or publicly. [ 1913 Webster ]
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| Private | a. [ L. privatus apart from the state, peculiar to an individual, private, properly p. p. of privare to bereave, deprive, originally, to separate, fr. privus single, private, perhaps originally, put forward (hence, alone, single) and akin to prae before. See Prior, a., and cf. Deprive, Privy, a. ] 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. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. Sequestered from company or observation; appropriated to an individual; secret; secluded; lonely; solitary; as, a private room or apartment; private prayer. [ 1913 Webster ] Reason . . . then retires
Into her private cell when nature rests. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. Not invested with, or engaged in, public office or employment; as, a private citizen; private life. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ] A private person may arrest a felon. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ] 4. Not publicly known; not open; secret; as, a private negotiation; a private understanding. [ 1913 Webster ] 5. Having secret or private knowledge; privy. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]
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
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. Kent. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]
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| Privation | n. [ L. privatio: cf. F. privation. See Private. ] 1. The act of depriving, or taking away; hence, the depriving of rank or office; degradation in rank; deprivation. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ] 2. The state of being deprived or destitute of something, especially of something required or desired; destitution; need; as, to undergo severe privations. [ 1913 Webster ] 3. The condition of being absent; absence; negation. [ 1913 Webster ] Evil will be known by consequence, as being only a privation, or absence, of good. South. [ 1913 Webster ] Privation mere of light and absent day. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ] |
