4 ADJ [usu ADJ n] Private places or gatherings may be attended only by a particular group of people, rather than by the general public. □ 673 private golf clubs took part in a recent study. □ The door is marked 'Private'.
5 ADJ [usu ADJ n] Private meetings, discussions, and other activities involve only a small number of people, and very little information about them is given to other people. □ Don't bug private conversations, and don't buy papers that reprint them. ● pri|vate|ly ADV [oft ADV after v] □ Few senior figures have issued any public statements but privately the resignation's been welcomed.
6 ADJ [usu ADJ n] Your private life is that part of your life that is concerned with your personal relationships and activities, rather than with your work or business. □ I've always kept my private and professional life separate.
7 ADJ [usu ADJ n] Your private thoughts or feelings are ones that you do not talk about to other people. □ We all felt as if we were intruding on his private grief. ● pri|vate|ly ADV [ADV with v] □ Privately, she worries about whether she's really good enough.
8 ADJ [ADJ n] You can use private to describe situations or activities that are understood only by the people involved in them, and not by anyone else. □ Chinese waiters stood in a cluster, sharing a private joke.
9 ADJ If you describe a place as private , or as somewhere where you can be private , you mean that it is a quiet place and you can be alone there without being disturbed. □ It was the only reasonably private place they could find.
10 ADJ [usu ADJ n] If you describe someone as a private person, you mean that they are very quiet by nature and do not reveal their thoughts and feelings to other people. □ Gould was an intensely private individual.
11 ADJ [usu ADJ n] You can use private to describe lessons that are not part of ordinary school activity, and which are given by a teacher to an individual pupil or a small group, usually in return for payment. □ Martial arts: Private lessons: £8 per hour. □ …Donald Tovey, who took her as his private pupil for the piano.
12 N‑COUNT ; N‑TITLE A private is a soldier of the lowest rank in an army or the marines. □ …Private Martin Ferguson.
13 → see also privately
14 PHRASE If you do something in private , you do it without other people being present, often because it is something that you want to keep secret. □ Some of what we're talking about might better be discussed in private.
pri |vate de|te c|tive (private detectives ) N‑COUNT A private detective is someone who you can pay to find missing people or do other kinds of investigation for you.
pri |vate e n|ter|prise N‑UNCOUNT Private enterprise is industry and business which is owned by individual people or commercial companies, and not by the government or an official organization. [BUSINESS ] □ …the government's plans to sell state companies to private enterprise.
pri |vate ey e (private eyes ) N‑COUNT You can refer to a private detective as a private eye , especially when he or she is a character in a film or story. [INFORMAL ]
pri |vate in|ve s|ti|ga|tor (private investigators ) N‑COUNT A private investigator is the same as a private detective .
pri|vate|ly /pra I v I tli/
1 ADV [ADV after v] If you buy or sell something privately , you buy it from or sell it to another person directly, rather than in a shop or through a business. □ The whole process makes buying a car privately as painless as buying from a garage. □ A great deal of food is distributed and sold privately without ever reaching the shops.
2 → see also private
Pri |vate Me m|ber's Bill (Private Members' Bills ) N‑COUNT In Britain, a Private Member's Bill is a law that is proposed by a Member of Parliament acting as an individual rather than as a member of his or her political party.
pri |vate pa rts N‑PLURAL [usu poss N ] Your private parts are your genitals. [INFORMAL ]
pri |vate schoo l (private schools ) N‑VAR A private school is a school which is not supported financially by the government and which parents have to pay for their children to go to. □ He attended Eton, the most exclusive private school in Britain.
pri |vate se c|tor N‑SING [N n] The private sector is the part of a country's economy which consists of industries and commercial companies that are not owned or controlled by the government. [BUSINESS ] □ …small firms in the private sector.
pri |vate so l|dier (private soldiers ) N‑COUNT A private soldier is a soldier of the lowest rank in an army or the marines. [FORMAL ]
pri|va|tion /pra I ve I ʃ ə n/ (privations ) N‑VAR If you suffer privation or privations , you have to live without many of the things that are thought to be necessary in life, such as food, clothing, or comfort. [FORMAL ] □ They endured five years of privation during the Second World War. □ [+ of ] The privations of monastery life were evident in his appearance.
pri|vat|ize ◆◇◇ /pra I vəta I z/ (privatizes , privatizing , privatized ) in BRIT, also use privatise VERB If a company, industry, or service that is owned by the state is privatized , the government sells it and makes it a private company. [BUSINESS ] □ [be V -ed] The water boards are about to be privatized. □ [V n] …a pledge to privatise the rail and coal industries. □ [V -ed] …the newly privatized FM radio stations. ● pri|vati|za|tion /pra I vəta I ze I ʃ ə n/ (privatizations ) N‑VAR □ [+ of ] …the privatisation of British Rail. □ …fresh rules governing the conduct of future privatizations.
priv|et /pr I v I t/ N‑UNCOUNT Privet is a type of bush with small leaves that stay green all year round. It is often grown in gardens to form hedges. □ The garden was enclosed by a privet hedge.
privi|lege /pr I v I l I dʒ/ (privileges , privileging , privileged )