\Priv"y\, a. [F. priv['e], fr. L. privatus. See
{Private}.]
1. Of or pertaining to some person exclusively; assigned to
   private uses; not public; private; as, the privy purse. ``
   Privee knights and squires.'' --Chaucer.
2. Secret; clandestine. `` A privee thief.'' --Chaucer.
3. Appropriated to retirement; private; not open to the
   public. `` Privy chambers.'' --Ezek. xxi. 14.
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.
   [Eng.]
{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 {signed}, the seal which the king uses in
   grants, etc., which are to pass the great seal, or which
   the 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.

\Priv"y\, n.; pl. {Privies}.
1. (Law) A partaker; a person having an interest in any
   action or thing; one who has an interest in an estate
   created by another; a person having an interest derived
   from a contract or conveyance to which he is not himself a
   party. The term, in its proper sense, is distinguished
   from party. --Burrill. Wharton.
2. A necessary house or place; a backhouse.