privy

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++朗文当代英语 5++LDOCE 5++朗文 5++priv·y1 /ˈprɪvi/ adjective 1 be privy to something SECRETsharing in the knowledge of facts that are secret 了解某事的内情，私下知晓某事 Colby was privy to the committee’s decisions. 科尔比知晓委员会的秘密决定。2. old useSECRET secret and private 秘密的，私下的 —privily adverb

Examples from the Corpus

privy• It is a soiled and puckered hem, the golden treasury's privy purse.• His access to patronage, too, was gained through privy Seal connections.• I was privy to all their discussions on Hardy, as both had known him during the First World War.• Earl, a classmate of North's from the Naval Academy, was privy to quite a lot, including the diversion.• And if he had made that boast, would it have remained privy to the colleagues?• On the front lines, the infantrymen were not privy to the intelligence part of the missions that we went on.• For the most part, citizens were neither involved in nor privy to this process.

Related topics: Household, Buildings

privy2 noun (plural privies) [countable] DHTBBa toilet, especially one outside a house in a small separate building 〔尤指室外的〕厕所

Examples from the Corpus

privy• In the boarding house he had lived in there was a privy in the backyard.• Chamber 46 is a bathroom with two baths, and chambers 47 and 48 are privies.• I was replacing a Framus flat-top, built like a brick privy.• Each campsite had an outdoor privy, rustic but clean.• By now the rain had stopped, though there was no sign of the pirate privy.• The privy fell forward, landing door-down.• Criss-crossed glimpses of the rooftops of tin privies.Origin privy2 (1100-1200) Old French privé, from Latin privatus; → PRIVATE1