| privilege | 1. A peculiar benefit, advantage, or favor; a right or immunity not enjoyed by others or by all; special enjoyment of a good, or exemption from an evil or burden; a prerogative; advantage; franchise. "He pleads the legal privilege of a Roman." (Kettlewell) "The privilege birthright was a double portion." (Locke) "A people inheriting privileges, franchises, and liberties." (Burke) 2. See Call, Put, Spread, etc. Breach of privilege. See Breach. Question of privilege, a writ to deliver a privileged person from custody when arrested in a civil suit. Synonym: Prerogative, immunity, franchise, right, claim, liberty. Privilege, Prerogative. Privilege, among the Romans, was something conferred upon an individual by a private law; and hence, it denotes some peculiar benefit or advantage, some right or immunity, not enjoyed by the world at large. Prerogative, among the Romans, was the right of voting first; and, hence, it denotes a right of precedence, or of doing certain acts, or enjoying certain privileges, to the exclusion of others. It is the privilege of a member of Congress not to be called in question elsewhere for words uttered in debate. It is the prerogative of the president to nominate judges and executive officers. It is the privilege of a Christian child to be instructed in the true religion. It is the prerogative of a parent to govern and direct his children. Origin: F. Privilege, L. Privilegium an ordinance or law against or in favor of an individual; privus private + lex, legis, law. See Private, and Legal. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| privileged | Invested with a privilege; enjoying a peculiar right, advantage, or immunity. Privileged communication. Witnesses who are not obliged to testify as to certain things, as lawyers in relation to their dealings with their clients, and officers of state as to state secrets; also, by statute, clergymen and physicans are placed in the same category, so far as concerns information received by them professionally. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| privileged site | An anatomic area lacking lymphatic drainage, such as the brain, cornea, and hamster cheek pouch, in which heterologous tumours may grow because the host does not become sensitised. (05 Mar 2000) |