Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

   3. Not invested with, or engaged in, public office or
      employment; as, a private citizen; private life. --Shak.

            A private person may arrest a felon.  --Blackstone.

   4. Not publicly known; not open; secret; as, a private
      negotiation; a private understanding.

   5. Having secret or private knowledge; privy. [Obs.]

   {Private act} or {statute}, a statute exclusively for the
      settlement of private and personal interests, of which
      courts do not take judicial notice; -- opposed to a
      general law, which operates on the whole community