privet
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of privet
First recorded in 1535–45; origin uncertain
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
After half a century, the prison was abandoned and the land — apart from a police shooting range — was reclaimed by pines and privet, dewberry and muscadine vines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 15, 2023
The sites were relatively undisturbed by humans and didn’t have common invasive plants such as Chinese privet.
From Science Magazine ● Mar. 5, 2023
“We set out to lower the wall and the privet hedges,” Ms. Wetenhall added, “and now people say we’re like a club without dues.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2022
On the morning of 29 May 2008 a park ranger discovered a woman's body behind a privet hedge in the middle of Queen's Park, Glasgow.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2020
The air had a sweet burn of frost, and Charley, moving ahead, saluted in detail a whole row of clipped privet, and he steamed as he went.
From "Travels with Charley in Search of America" by John Steinbeck
Most people come to Bekonscot for containment and trimmed privets, for a place forever amber.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 23, 2018
The yard was so massed with tall privets that he couldn’t see much of the house.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Off we went, dodging laurels and privets, and poured out on to the lawn, a disordered company.
From The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu by Rohmer, Sax
Other plants that hold their leaves and are good for hedges are the common box and the privets.
From Manual of Gardening (Second Edition) by Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde)
Trust not too much to colour, beauteous boy; White privets fall, dark hyacinths are culled.
From The Bucolics and Eclogues by Virgil
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
