Definition of "private" []

• Secluded from the sight, presence, or intrusion of others: a private hideaway. (adjective)
• Designed or intended for one's exclusive use: a private room. (adjective)
• Of or confined to the individual; personal: a private joke; private opinions. (adjective)
• Undertaken on an individual basis: private studies; private research. (adjective)
• Of, relating to, or receiving special hospital services and privileges: a private patient. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "VIEW FAVORITES yahooBuzzArticleHeadline = '"Tax Farming" by Private Collectors Starts This Week at IRS'; yahooBuzzArticleSummary = 'IRS to spend $75 million with 3 private collection agencies (GOP connected?) and give them \'personal, private\' information on 12,500 US taxpayers who owe less than $25,000."
• "Re Shaun's comment on 4/1/05 see above that includes this sentence: "As I said before, my issue isn't with the sexual orientation, it's with people who lack the discretion to keep their private lives *private*"; and this one: "Were I to go into work Monday morning and regale my coworkers with tales of my sexual exploits, I'd likely lose my job.""
• "But, by one who speaks without notes is generally understood one who has only memorised his leading ideas, and it is always a judicious practice for a beginner to rehearse his leading topics and their amplifications in private, _that he may test his memory_, and then _become familiar_ with a procedure _in private_ in order to be sure to be _perfect in it before the public_."