adj.
1 (top) secret, confidential, undisclosed, hidden, clandestine, concealed, covert, surreptitious, off the record, not for publication, unofficial, Colloq hush-hush:
I think our relationship should be kept private for the time being. What I am about to tell you is strictly private
2 privileged, restrictive, restricted, exclusive, special, reserved, personal, inaccessible, non-public; hidden, secluded, concealed, secret, sneaking:
The house is situated on a private road. I had a private suspicion that they would cancel their trip
3 personal, individual, own, intimate, particular:
My private affairs are none of your business.
4 solitary, seclusive, reclusive, withdrawn, retiring, reticent, ungregarious, non-gregarious, unsocial, unsociable, antisocial, reserved, uncommunicative, hermitic(al), hermit-like, eremitic(al); sequestered, secluded, retired:
You have to bear in mind that Edmund is a very private person.
n.
5 private soldier, infantryman, foot-soldier, US enlisted man, Colloq Brit Tommy, Tommy Atkins, squaddie, US GI (Joe), Slang US grunt:
Before cashiering him, they reduced him from colonel to private.
6 in private. in secret, secretly, privately, sub rosa, personally, confidentially, behind closed doors, in camera, off the record, US on the q.t. or Q.T.; clandestinely, secretively, sneakily, sneakingly, surreptitiously, furtively, covertly, on the sly:
Family matters should be discussed only in private. They met in private with agents of the rebel forces
7 private parts or privates. genitals, sexual or sex organs, genitalia. The natives wore loincloths to cover their private parts.
privation
n.
need, neediness, want, deprivation, hardship, indigence, necessity, poverty, penury, destitution, strait(s), pauperism, beggary; distress, misery:
The lower classes in Victorian England suffered terrible privation.