Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Privileged?

\Priv"i*leged\, a. Invested with a privilege; enjoying a peculiar right, advantage, or immunity. {Privileged communication}. (Law) (a) A communication which can not be disclosed without the consent of the party making it, -- such as those made by a client to his legal adviser, or by persons to their religious or medical advisers. (b) A communication which does not expose the party making it to indictment for libel, -- such as those made by persons communicating confidentially with a government, persons consulted confidentially as to the character of servants, etc. {Privileged debts} (Law), those to which a preference in payment is given out of the estate of a deceased person, or out of the estate of an insolvent. --Wharton. --Burrill. {Privileged witnesses} (Law) 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.