Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Made a participant in knowledge of something private or secret: was privy to classified information.
- adj. Belonging or proper to a person, such as the British sovereign, in a private rather than official capacity.
- adj. Secret; concealed.
- n. An outdoor toilet; an outhouse.
- n. A toilet.
- n. Law One of the parties having an interest in the same matter.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Private; pertaining to some person exclusively; assigned to private uses; not public: as, the privy purse.
- Secret; not seen openly; not made known in public.
- Private; appropriated to retirement; sequestered; retired.
- Privately knowing; admitted to the participation with another in knowledge of a secret transaction: generally with to.
- Intimate; familiar; on confidential terms; well known.
- Cognizant (of), acquainted (with).
- n. In law, one standing in a relation of privily to another. See privity, 7. A partaker: a person having a joint or common knowledge, right, or responsibility. More specifically
- n. A secret friend.
- n. A necessary.
Wiktionary
- adj. Private, exclusive; that is one's own.
- adj. Secret, hidden, concealed.
- adj. With knowledge of; party to; let in on.
- n. an outdoor toilet; latrine; earth closet; john; johnny house.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to some person exclusively; assigned to private uses; not public; private.
- adj. Secret; clandestine.
- adj. Appropriated to retirement; private; not open to the public.
- adj. Admitted to knowledge of a secret transaction; secretly cognizant; privately knowing.
- 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 . - n. A necessary house or place for performing excretory functions in private; an outhouse; a backhouse.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a room or building equipped with one or more toilets
- adj. (followed by `to') informed about something secret or not generally known
- n. a small outbuilding with a bench having holes through which a user can defecate
- adj. hidden from general view or use
Etymologies
- Middle English prive, from Old French, from Latin prīvātus, private, from prīvus, single, alone; see per1 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Bacillus coli inhabits the internal tract of cattle as well as of man, but when in a farmyard the privy is as near to the shallow well as is the dung heap, it is not exactly safe to suppose that these and other contaminating microbes are derived only from harmless cattle.”
“Posted in privy council clerk kevin lynch, public service minority gap, restorative justice.”
A "Gap" Of Minorities In Government Jobs « Unambiguously Ambidextrous
“The privy is a straight "Parson's bench" style with 40 holes; ten on each side wall and twenty back to back in the middle of the building.”
“The word privy is one of the earliest euphemisms used in England; an anonymous writer at the turn of the fifteenth century advised”
“Shivering, he mooched outside to what Uncle Gib called the privy and he the “bog.””
“I didn't use actual slang words, per se, except for "necessary" (which is what ladies called the privy or outhouse).”
“Just recently, it dawned on me that the privy was a one-holer.”
“Were they prevailed on to call a privy meeting tomorrow, with a loaded quorum, Hauksberg would depart with the authority he needed.”
Ensign Flandry
“It would be the highest disgrace to him if he were, since even his so-called privy-chamber [708] resounds with the noise of clamorous litigants.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘privy’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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extra room
An add-on to Trivet's list elbow room and Lampbane's list 2BDRM W/VU that tries not to duplicate Trivet's and Lampbane's existing rooms. Virtual, allegorical and proverbial rooms accepted.
scullery, suite, porch, screened porch, breakfast room, atheneum, attic, hall, dressing room, passageway, corridor, fusuma and 126 more...
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Words sung by: Belle and Sebastian
beguiling, herbaceous, peninsula, suffragette, damascan, hastening, berserk, overtime, leccy, bestow, swathe, arab strap and 193 more...
jwjarvis privy to campaign strategy Mar 10, 2011
Prolagus You are the one who's making do
I am the one who's privy to
'cause you saw him in the park
'cause you saw him at the bridges with the people in the dark.
(Mayfly, by Belle and Sebastian) Aug 24, 2008
arby And another example of my mispronouncing words based on their spelling. At least I know now, better late than never! Aug 20, 2007
jennarenn I think that it always has the short i, but I can see why you'd expect it to rhyme with ivy. Yet another reason why teaching English is harder than it really needs to be. Aug 20, 2007
reesetee I've never heard this pronounced with a long i at all. Aug 20, 2007
slumry I have always heard both pronounced the same way, with a short i, rhyming with chivvy. Aug 12, 2007
arby Is it pronounced the same? I always thought "privy" in the way you describe rhymed with chivvy and "privy" as in outhouse rhymed with ivy. Aug 12, 2007
slumry In the sense of "participating in the knowledge of something private or secret."
An one hopes a privy would be private. Jul 14, 2007