Priv·y Council

(prĭv′ē)

1. A council of the British sovereign that until the 1600s was the supreme legislative body, that now consists of cabinet ministers ex officio and others appointed for life, and that has no important function except through its Judicial Committee, which in certain cases acts as a supreme appellate court in the Commonwealth.

2. privy council An advisory council to an executive.

privy councilor n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

privy council

1. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the council of state of a monarch or noble, esp formerly

2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) (in Canada) a ceremonial body of advisers of the governor general, the chief of them being the Federal cabinet ministers

3. archaic a private or secret council

Privy Council

(Government, Politics & Diplomacy) the private council of the British sovereign, consisting of all current and former ministers of the Crown and other distinguished subjects, all of whom are appointed for life. See also Judicial Committee of the Privy Council

Privy Counsellor n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

priv′y coun′cil

1. a board or select body of personal advisers, as of a sovereign.

2. (caps.)

a. (in Great Britain) a body of persons who advise the sovereign in matters of state, the majority of members being selected by the prime minister.

b. (in Canada) a body of persons who advise the Governor General.

[1250–1300]

priv′y coun′cilor, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

privy council - an advisory council to a ruler (especially to the British Crown)

council - a body serving in an administrative capacity; "student council"

diwan, divan - a Muslim council of state

Britain, Great Britain, U.K., UK, United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; `Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom

Translations

királyi államtanács

tajná rada

Privy Council

n (Brit) the Privy Council → il Consiglio della Corona

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.

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The Journalist then recites the complaint of the injured Allan Stewart, Commendator of Crossraguel, to the Regent and Privy Council, averring his having been carried, partly by flattery, partly by force, to the black vault of Denure, a strong fortalice, built on a rock overhanging the Irish channel, where to execute leases and conveyances of the whole churches and parsonages belonging to the Abbey of Crossraguel, which he utterly refused as an unreasonable demand, and the more so that he had already conveyed them to John Stewart of Cardonah, by whose interest he had been made Commendator.

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Her serious face was a sight to see, when she rang for the cook, and the two held a privy council in a corner.

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He had worked his stony way into Her Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council's Schedule B, and had taken the bloom off the higher branches of mathematics and physical science, French, German, Latin, and Greek.

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At last, at seven o'clock in the evening, the Privy Council issued a solemn proclamation that it was now necessary to employ the military, and that the officers had most direct and effectual orders, by an immediate exertion of their utmost force, to repress the disturbances; and warning all good subjects of the King to keep themselves, their servants, and apprentices, within doors that night.

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So far as a demeanour of natural authority was concerned, the mother country need not have been ashamed to see these foremost men of an actual democracy adopted into the House of Peers, or make the Privy Council of the Sovereign.

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That Providence, however, had put it into the heart of a person who was beyond fear and beyond reproach, to ferret out the nature of the prisoner's schemes, and, struck with horror, to disclose them to his Majesty's Chief Secretary of State and most honourable Privy Council. That, this patriot would be produced before them.

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It will add great weight to this remark, in relation to prize causes, to mention that the method of determining them has been thought worthy of particular regulation in various treaties between different powers of Europe, and that, pursuant to such treaties, they are determinable in Great Britain, in the last resort, before the king himself, in his privy council, where the fact, as well as the law, undergoes a re-examination.

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I don't believe he may even eat or drink what he likes best; a taste for tripe and onions on his part would provoke a remonstrance from the Privy Council. We dictate everything except his thoughts and dreams, and even these he must keep to himself if they are not suitable, in our opinion, to his condition.

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In February 2018 the Privy Council announced its rejection of this final legal challenge.

Channel Islands Confiscates Fresh APS211 Million Abacha Loot

FILE PHOTO: Thailand's former Prime Minister and President of the Royal Privy Council Prem Tinsulanonda is seen during an official event in Bangkok, Thailand April 10, 2019.

Former Thai PM and influential royal adviser Prem Tinsulanonda dies at 98

There is bitter jealousy in the top ranks of the SNP over who becomes a Rt Hon, as members of the Privy Council can style themselves.

Hosie's the Right choice for the Privy Council honour