definitions

privy purse

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noun British.

a sum from the public revenues allotted to the sovereign for personal expenses.
a member of the royal household in charge of paying these expenses.

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Nearby words

privity, privy, privy chamber, privy coat, privy council, privy purse, privy seal, prix fixe, prix goncourt, prize, prize court

Origin of privy purse

First recorded in 1655–65
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for privy purse

  • He was his lordship's page, and rode a hunting and hawking with him, and kept his privy-purse.

    Brief Lives (Vol. 1 of 2)|John Aubrey

British Dictionary definitions for privy purse

privy purse

noun (often capitals)

  1. (in Britain) an allowance voted by Parliament for the private expenses of the monarch: part of the civil list
  2. (in other countries) a similar sum of money for the monarch
an official of the royal household responsible for dealing with the monarch's private expensesFull name: Keeper of the Privy Purse
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012