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onnected 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.

An armed private vessel which bears the commission of the sovereign power to cruise against the enemy. See Letters of marque, under Marque.

Cruising in a privateer.

An officer or seaman of a privateer.

In a private manner; not openly; without the presence of others.

Seclusion from company or society; retirement; privacy; secrecy. Bacon.

To cohabit. [Obs.] We with the best men accustom openly; you with the basest commit private adulteries. Milton.

To behave or conduct, as in morals, private duties, or public offices; to bear or deport one's self; as, we know not why he has acted so.

To summon; to call. [Obs.] Queen Katharine had privately prevailed with the pope to advoke the cause to Rome. Fuller.

The innermost sanctuary or shrine in ancient temples, whence oracles were given. Hence: A private chamber; a sanctum.

r fact of an interesting nature; a biographical incident or fragment; a single passage of private life.

To charge with a crime; to accuse; to institute a private criminal prosecution against for some heinous crime; as, to appeal a person of felony.

So as to be heard by others; privately. Then lords and ladies spake aside. Sir W. Scott. To set aside (Law), to annul or defeat the effect or operation of, by a subsequent decision of the same or of a superior tribunal; to declare of no authority; as, to set aside a verdict or a judgment.

Told in the ear, i. e., told privately; as, auricular confession to the priest. This next chapter is a penitent confession of the king, and the strangest . . . that ever was auricular. Milton.

onounced backwards; as, nam for man. -- Back stairs, stairs in the back part of a house; private stairs. Also used adjectively. See Back stairs, Backstairs, and Backstair, in the Vocabulary. -- Back step (Mil.), the retrograde movement of a man or body of men, without changing front. -- Back stream, a current runnin…

Stairs in the back part of a house, as distinguished from the front stairs; hence, a private or indirect way.

Private; indirect; secret; intriguing; as if finding access by the back stairs. A backstairs influence. Burke. Female caprice and backstairs influence. Trevelyan.

a ticket or note, where to lodge. Hence: To quarter, or place in lodgings, as soldiers in private houses. Billeted in so antiquated a mansion. W. Irving.

Hence: A council, convened for business, or any authorized assembly or meeting, public or private; a number of persons appointed or elected to sit in council for the management or direction of some public or private business or trust; as, the Board of Admiralty; a board of trade; a board of directors, trustees, commiss…

To discuss or argue privately, and for practice, as cases at law. Jacob. To bolt to the bran, to examine thoroughly, so as to separate or discover everything important. Chaucer. This bolts the matter fairly to the bran. Harte. The report of the committee was examined and sifted and bolted to the bran. Burke.…