Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Private \Pri"vate\, n.
   1. A secret message; a personal unofficial communication.
      [Obs.] --Shak.

   2. Personal interest; particular business.[Obs.]

            Nor must I be unmindful of my private. --B. Jonson.

   3. Privacy; retirement. [Archaic] ``Go off; I discard you;
      let me enjoy my private.'' --Shak.

   4. One not invested with a public office. [Archaic]

            What have kings, that privates have not too? --Shak.

   5. (Mil.) A common soldier; a soldier below the grade of a
      noncommissioned officer. --Macaulay.

   6. pl. The private parts; the genitals.

   {In private}, secretly; not openly or publicly.

Source : WordNet®

in private
     adv : kept private or confined to those intimately concerned; "it
           was discussed privately between the two men";
           "privately, she thought differently"; "some member of
           his own party hoped privately for his defeat"; "he was
           questioned in private" [syn: {privately}, {in camera}]
           [ant: {publicly}]