1. soldier of the three lowest military ranks. intimate, for or pertaining to a small group of people; personal, of an individual. privateprivate (?; 48), a. [l. privatus apart from the state, peculiar to an individual, private, properly p. p. of privare to bereave, deprive, originally, to separate, fr. privus single, private, perhaps originally, put forward (hence, alone, single) and akin to prae before. see: prior, a., and cf. deprive, privy, a.]