private

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Secluded from the sight, presence, or intrusion of others: a private hideaway.
2. adj. Designed or intended for one's exclusive use: a private room.
3. adj. Of or confined to the individual; personal: a private joke; private opinions.
4. adj. Undertaken on an individual basis: private studies; private research.
5. adj. Of, relating to, or receiving special hospital services and privileges: a private patient.
6. adj. Not available for public use, control, or participation: a private club; a private party.
7. adj. Belonging to a particular person or persons, as opposed to the public or the government: private property.
8. adj. Of, relating to, or derived from nongovernment sources: private funding.
9. adj. Conducted and supported primarily by individuals or groups not affiliated with governmental agencies or corporations: a private college; a private sanatorium.
10. adj. Enrolled in or attending a private school: a private student.
11. adj. Not holding an official or public position: a private citizen.
12. adj. Not for public knowledge or disclosure; secret: private papers; a private communication.
13. adj. Not appropriate for use or display in public; intimate: private behavior; a private tragedy.
14. adj. Placing a high value on personal privacy: a private person.
15. n. A noncommissioned rank in the U.S. Army or Marine Corps that is below private first class.
16. n. One who holds this rank or a similar rank in a military organization.
17. n. Private parts. Often used with the.
18. idiom. go private To take a publicly owned company into private ownership, as by a leveraged buyout.
19. idiom. in private Not in public; secretly or confidentially.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Peculiar to, belonging to, or concerning an individual only; respecting particular individuals; personal.
2. Kept or removed from public view; not known; not open; not accessible to people in general; secret.
3. Not holding public office or employment; not having a public or official character: as, a private citizen; private life; private schools.
4. Noting a common soldier, or one of the ordinary rank and file.
5. Being in privacy; retired from company; secluded.
6. Privy; informed of what is not generally known.
7. Keeping privacy or confidence; secretive; reticent.
8. Intimate; confidential.
9. Particular; individual; special: opposed to general.
10. n. A person not in public life or office.
11. n. A common soldier; one of the rank and file of an army.
12. n. A secret message; private intimation.
13. n. Personal interest or use; particular business.
14. n. Privacy; retirement.
15. n. plural The private parts of the body.
16. n. In some colleges, a private admonition.
17. To deprive.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Belonging to, concerning, or accessible only to an individual person or a specific group.
2. adj. Not in governmental office or employment.
3. adj. Not publicly known; not open; secret.
4. adj. Protected from view or disturbance by others; secluded.
5. adj. Intended only for the use of an individual, group, or organization.
6. adj. Not accessible by the public.
7. adj. Not traded by the public.
8. adj. Secretive; reserved.
9. adj. US, of a room in a medical facility Not shared with another patient.
10. adj. this sense?) Pertaining to the genitalia.
11. n. The lowest rank of the army.
12. n. A soldier of the rank of private.
13. n. A euphemistic term for the genitals.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. 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.
2. adj. Sequestered from company or observation; appropriated to an individual; secret; secluded; lonely; solitary.
3. adj. Not invested with, or engaged in, public office or employment
4. adj. Not publicly known; not open; secret.
5. adj. obsolete Having secret or private knowledge; privy.
6. n. obsolete A secret message; a personal unofficial communication.
7. n. obsolete Personal interest; particular business.
8. n. Archaic Privacy; retirement.
9. n. Archaic One not invested with a public office.
10. n. (Mil.) A common soldier; a soldier below the grade of a noncommissioned officer.
11. n. The private parts; the genitals.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. concerning one person exclusively
2. adj. not expressed
3. adj. concerning things deeply private and personal
4. adj. confined to particular persons or groups or providing privacy
5. n. an enlisted man of the lowest rank in the Army or Marines