資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Privy \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.

資料來源 : WordNet®

privy purse
     n : allowance for a monarch's personal expenses