IN PRIVATE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does in private mean? 

• IN PRIVATE (adverb)
  The adverb IN PRIVATE has 1 sense:

1. kept private or confined to those intimately concerned

  Familiarity information: IN PRIVATE used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IN PRIVATE (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Kept private or confined to those intimately concerned

Synonyms:

in camera; in private; privately

Context example:

he was questioned in private

 Context examples 

Emma denied none of it aloud, and agreed to none of it in private.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

She did not believe they had yet rehearsed it, even in private.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

She'd do her any kindness in private.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Now I know well that you medical men speak in camera, and that a man must not expect to know what they consult about in private.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And you won't tease me in private?

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It may be remembered that after my marriage, and my subsequent start in private practice, the very intimate relations which had existed between Holmes and myself became to some extent modified.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mr. Rucastle told me in private that the reason why she had left them was that she had an unreasoning aversion to her stepmother.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There could be only the most proper alacrity, a most obliging compliance for public view; and smiles reined in and spirits dancing in private rapture.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Here they were interrupted by the entrance of a third person, and Elinor withdrew to think it all over in private, to wish success to her friend, and yet in wishing it, to feel a pang for Willoughby.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He hoped that he would not hurt the feelings of the gentleman in the red tie if he maintained that, whatever virtues that gentleman might possess in private life, still the vast processes of the universe were not fully justified if they were to end entirely in his production.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)