Search the Dictionary

In a manner affecting an individual; personally not officially; as, he is not privately benefited.

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

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.

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.…

a. Bellows camera. See under Bellows. -- In camera (Law), in a judge's chamber, that is, privately; as, a judge hears testimony which is not fit for the open court in camera. -- Panoramic, or Pantascopic, camera, a photographic camera in which the lens and sensitized plate revolve so as to expose adjacent parts of th…

privately; secretly. [Obs.]

Secretly; privately. [Obs.] That nought she did but wayle, and often steepe Her dainty couch with tears which closely she did weepe. Spenser.

An assembly for religious worship; esp., such an assembly held privately, as in times of persecution, by Nonconformists or Dissenters in England, or by Covenanters in Scotland; -- often used opprobriously, as if those assembled were heretics or schismatics. The first Christians could never have had recourse to nocturna…

barren; wild; desolate; solitary; as, they landed on a desert island. He . . . went aside privately into a desert place. Luke ix. 10. Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Gray. Desert flora (Bot.), the assemblage of plants growing naturally in a desert, or in a dry and…

In a domestic manner; privately; with reference to domestic affairs.

To run away, or escape privately, from the place or station to which one is bound by duty; -- said especially of a woman or a man, either married or unmarried, who runs away with a paramour or a sweetheart. Great numbers of them [the women] have eloped from their allegiance. Addison.

To accept, as an opinion; to be the adherent of, openly or privately; to persist in, as a purpose; to maintain; to sustain. Stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught. 2 Thes. ii.15. But still he held his purpose to depart. Dryden.

In the heart or mind; mentally; privately; secretas, he inwardly repines.

lf Be the chief mourner at his obsequies. Dryden. The funeral obsequies were decently and privately performed by his family J. P. Mahaffy.

To steal or pocket game, or to carry it away privately, as in a bag; to kill or destroy game contrary to law, especially by night; to hunt or fish unlawfully; as, to poach for rabbits or for salmon.

In a privy manner; privately; secretly. Chaucer. 2 Pet. ii. 1.

Admitted to knowledge of a secret transaction; secretly cognizant; privately knowing. His wife also being privy to it. Acts v. 2. Myself am one made privy to the plot. Shak. Privy chamber, a private apartment in a royal residence. [Eng.] -- Privy council (Eng. Law), the principal council of the sovereign, composed of t…

ed in its natural color; -- said of any object used as a charge. In proper, individually; privately. [Obs.] Jer. Taylor. -- Proper flower or corolla (Bot.), one of the single florets, or corollets, in an aggregate or compound flower. -- Proper fraction (Arith.) a fraction in which the numerator is less than the denom…

gans. 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.