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Private vs Shifty - What's the difference?

private | shifty | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between private and shifty

is that private is belonging to, concerning, or accessible only to an individual person or a specific group while shifty is having the appearance of someone dishonest, criminal or unreliable; such as someone with shifty eyes.

As a noun private

is the lowest rank of the army.

private

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Belonging to, concerning, or accessible only to an individual person or a specific group.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-14, author=(Jonathan Freedland)
    • , volume=189, issue=1, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Obama's once hip brand is now tainted , passage=Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.}}
  • Not in governmental office or employment.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)
    • , volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16.
  • Not publicly known; not open; secret.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=20 citation , passage=The story struck the depressingly familiar note with which true stories ring in the tried ears of experienced policemen.
  • Protected from view or disturbance by others; secluded.
  • Intended only for the use of an individual, group, or organization.
  • Not accessible by the public.
  • Not traded by the public.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private -equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • Secretive; reserved.
  • (US, of a room in a medical facility) Not shared with another patient.

    • Synonyms

    * (done in the view of others ): secluded * (intended only for one's own use ): personal * (not accessible by the public ):

    Antonyms

    * public

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The lowest rank of the army.
  • A soldier of the rank of private.
  • (in plural privates) A euphemistic term for the genitals.
  • (obsolete) A secret message; a personal unofficial communication.
    • (Shakespeare)
  • (obsolete) Personal interest; particular business.
  • * Ben Jonson
    • Nor must I be unmindful of my private .
  • (obsolete) Privacy; retirement.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Go off; I discard you; let me enjoy my private .
  • (obsolete) One not invested with a public office.
  • * Shakespeare
    • What have kings, that privates have not too?
  • A private lesson.
    • If you want to learn ballet, consider taking privates .

    Synonyms

    * (genitals) bits, private parts

    Derived terms

    * in private * privacy * private language * private parts * private property * private stock * public-private partnership

    Statistics

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    shifty

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Having the appearance of someone dishonest, criminal or unreliable; such as someone with shifty eyes .
    • He was a shifty character in a seedy bar and I checked my wallet was still there after talking to him.
  • Subject to frequent changes in direction.
  • * 1971 , Henry Handel Richardson, Ultima Thule (page 121)
    • Off he raced, shuffling his bare feet through the hot, dry, shifty sand. But it was no good: she didn't care.
  • Full of, or ready with, shifts or expedients.
    • (Wright)
  • * Charles Kingsley
    • Shifty and thrifty as old Greek or modern Scot, there were few things he could not invent, and perhaps nothing he could not endure.