Definition of 'privy'
Word forms: plural privies
1. adjective
If you are privy to something secret, you have been allowed to know about it.
[formal] Only three people, including a police officer, will be privy to the facts. [+ to]
2. countable noun
[old-fashioned]
COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
adjectiveWord forms: privier or priviest
3. archaic
of or relating to one person only
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word origin of 'privy'
adjective
nounWord forms: plural ˈprivies
3.
a toilet; esp., an outhouse
4. Law
a person who is in privity with another
Idioms:
Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition. Copyright © 2010 by
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
Derived forms
adverb
Example sentences containing 'privy'
These examples have been automatically selected and may contain sensitive content.
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Does that make him a privy counsellor? Times, Sunday Times (2016)The privy council agreed with his judgment. Times, Sunday Times (2016)About 40,000 people were privy to the technical rehearsal and yet most of them kept mum. Times, Sunday Times (2012)He is the second privy counsellor to be ejected in 200 years. Times, Sunday Times (2011)After all, his first act had been to be sealed in a privy. Times, Sunday Times (2014)From the coal fire in the parlour to the outside privy, it was like stepping into a different universe. Times, Sunday Times (2014)It is her courtiers who seem not to grasp that the privy purse is filled by the public's increasingly tatty wallet. Times, Sunday Times (2013)A report by a group of privy counsellors predicts that most calls will be made via the internet within five years. Times, Sunday Times (2009)No one is privy to her despair, her chaos, and her shame. Eating Problems: A Feminist Psychoanalytic Treatment Model (1994)She was then leader of the Commons, lord privy seal and minister for women and equality. Times, Sunday Times (2015)No one should be privy to sights above the thigh unless you've made an appointment and they're wearing gloves. Times, Sunday Times (2016)A boiler house, added in wartime and used as an outside privy, took the likely place of the original front door. Times, Sunday Times (2008)
Word Lists
Trends of 'privy'
Used Occasionally. privy is one of the 30000 most commonly used words in the Collins dictionary
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Translations for 'privy'
British English: privy ADJECTIVE
If you are privy to something secret, you have been allowed to know about it.
Only three people, including a policeman, will be privy to the facts.
- American English: privy
- Brazilian Portuguese: inteirado
- Chinese: 跟...有利害关系
- European Spanish: conocimiento de
- French: au courant
- German: eingeweiht in
- Italian: a conoscenza
- Japanese: 内情に通じた
- Korean: 비밀을 공유하는 것이 허락된
- European Portuguese: inteirado
- Spanish: conocimiento de
Nearby words of 'privy'
Related Terms of 'privy'
Source
Definition of privy from the
Collins English Dictionary
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