Definition of "privet" [priv•et]

• Any of several shrubs of the genus Ligustrum, especially L. vulgare or L. ovalifolium, having opposite leaves and clusters of white flowers and widely used for hedges. (noun)
• Any of several similar or related plants. (noun)

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.

• "Much softer than the privet, which is so hard it should be used to build houses."
• "The solution to the high maintenence of the privet was a row of arborvitae behind and C. pisifera ‘Gold Mops’ in front of the large existing hedge."
• "Commonly it is not so tall, is always well clipped and is so civil to strangers that one would wish to see its like on every street front, though he might prefer to find it not so invariably of the one sort of growth -- a small, handsome privet, that is, which nevertheless fulfils its office with the perfection of a solid line of palace sentries."