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Private; secluded; quiet; as, a retired life; a person of retired habits. A retired part of the peninsula. Hawthorne.

A place of seclusion or privacy; a place to which one withdraws or retreats; a private abode. [Archaic] This coast full of princely retirements for the sumptousness of their buildings and nobleness of the plantations. Evelyn. Caprea had been the retirement of Augustus. Addison.

he public peace by an unlawful assembly of three or more persons in the execution of some private object. To run riot, to act wantonly or without restraint.

A private circle or assembly at a private house; a circle. [Obs.] Dryden.

y; also, that which is uttered or done in saluting or greeting. In all public meetings or private addresses, use those forms of salutation, reverence, and decency usual amongst the most sober persons. Jer. Taylor.

, holding up vice or folly to reprobation; a keen or severe exposure of what in public or private morals deserves rebuke; an invective poem; as, the Satires of Juvenal.

right of the lawfully commissioned cruisers of belligerent nations to examine and search private merchant vessels on the high seas, for the enemy's property or for articles contraband of war. -- Search warrant (Law), a warrant legally issued, authorizing an examination or search of a house, or other place, for goods…

delity to a secret; forbearance of disclosure or discovery. It is not with public as with private prayer; in this, rather secrecy is commanded than outward show. Hooker.

which modesty and propriety require to be concealed; the genital organs. In secret, in a private place; in privacy or secrecy; in a state or place not seen; privately. Bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Prov. ix. 17.

A person employed to write orders, letters, dispatches, public or private papers, records, and the like; an official scribe, amanuensis, or writer; one who attends to correspondence, and transacts other business, for an association, a public body, or an individual. That which is most of all profitable is acquaintance w…

Tending to secrete, or to keep secret or private; as, a secretive disposition.

Hence, personal interest, or love of private interest; selfishness; as, self is his whole aim.

One's own affairs; one's private business. [Obs.] Shak.

Private interest; the interest or advantage of one's self.

egard, or at the expense, of those of others. They judge of things according to their own private appetites and selfish passions. Cudworth. In that throng of selfish hearts untrue. Keble.

In a selfish manner; with regard to private interest only or chiefly.

s felt or is held as a sentiment, view, or opinion; judgment; notion; opinion. I speak my private but impartial sense With freedom. Roscommon. The municipal council of the city had ceased to speak the sense of the citizens. Macaulay.

soldier, seaman. etc. Many . . . who had before been great commanders, but now served as private gentlemen without pay. Knolles.

The parts which modesty requires to be covered; the private parts. Isa. xlvii. 3. For shame! you should be ashamed; shame on you! -- To put to shame, to cause to feel shame; to humiliate; to disgrace. "Let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil." Ps. xl. 14.

ic house; especially, a place where spirits and other excisable liquors are illegally and privately sold. [Ireland]