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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.

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

Historical Examples of privy purse

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

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