The Collaborative International Dictionary
Privy \Priv"y\, a. [F. priv['e], fr. L. privatus. See Private.]
Of or pertaining to some person exclusively; assigned to private uses; not public; private; as, the privy purse. `` Privee knights and squires.''
--Chaucer.Secret; clandestine. `` A privee thief.''
--Chaucer.Appropriated to retirement; private; not open to the public. `` Privy chambers.''
--Ezek. xxi. 1-
4. Admitted to knowledge of a secret transaction; secretly cognizant; privately knowing.
His wife also being privy to it.
--Acts v. 2.Myself am one made privy to the plot.
--Shak.Privy chamber, a private apartment in a royal residence.
Privy council (Eng. Law), the principal council of the sovereign, composed of the cabinet ministers and other persons chosen by the king or queen.
--Burrill.Privy councilor, a member of the privy council.
Privy purse, moneys set apart for the personal use of the monarch; also, the title of the person having charge of these moneys. [Eng.]
--Macaulay.Privy seal or Privy signet, the seal which the king uses in grants, etc., which are to pass the great seal, or which he uses in matters of subordinate consequence which do not require the great seal; also, elliptically, the principal secretary of state, or person intrusted with the privy seal. [Eng.]
Privy verdict, a verdict given privily to the judge out of court; -- now disused.
--Burrill.
Usage examples of "privy councilor".
The maid entered and said that the housekeeper from Schreyvogel Strasse had come to fetch the doctor, as the Privy Councilor was very low again.
The idea that Wild Whip was developing had several other subsidiary clauses, but bearded old Micah Hale did not hear them, for with the mention of the word Japan he was suddenly transported to the mysterious city of Tokyo in the year 1881, when he served as privy councilor to the last king of Hawaii on the latter's triumphal journey around the world.