Priv"y (?), a. [F. privé,
fr. L. privatus. See Private.]
1. Of or pertaining to some person
exclusively; assigned to private uses; not public; private; as, the
privy purse. " Privee knights and squires."
Chaucer.
2. Secret; clandestine. " A
privee thief." Chaucer.
3. Appropriated to retirement; private; not
open to the public. " Privy chambers." Ezek. xxi.
14.
4. 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 the
cabinet ministers and other persons chosen by the king or queen.
Burrill. -- Privy councilor, a member of
the privy council. -- Privy purse, moneys
set apart for the personal use of the monarch; also, the title of the
person having charge of these moneys. [Eng.] Macaulay. --
Privy seal or signet, the seal
which the king uses in grants, etc., which are to pass the great seal,
or which he uses in matters of subordinate consequence which do not
require the great seal; also, elliptically, the principal secretary of
state, or person intrusted with the privy seal. [Eng.] --
Privy verdict, a verdict given privily to the
judge out of court; -- now disused. Burrill.
Priv"y, n.; pl.
Privies (&?;).
1. (Law) 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.
Burrill. Wharton.
2. A necessary house or place; a
backhouse.
