proprietary

Pluralproprietaries

1. 1
   trade secretadjective

   Made only by the owner or licensee of the intellectual property rights in it, such as a patent or trade secret.

   The firm guards its proprietary formula as closely as any state secret.

   Cheaper generic versions went on sale as soon as the proprietary drug lost its patent.

   Similarpatented, branded, trademarked

   Oppositenonproprietary

2. 2
   closed systemadjective

   Not following a public standard, and controlled by a single organization.

   The camera saves images in a proprietary format that only the maker's own software can read.

   Many web developers avoided the browser's proprietary features and stuck to the published standards.

   Similarclosed, nonstandard

   Oppositenonproprietary

   Note

   The word is at home in computing, where a proprietary format or extension works only with one organization's products. Its opposites are nonproprietary and, more pointedly, open source. The objection here is practical rather than legal: what matters is that a single organization controls the thing and others cannot follow it, which is what separates this use from the patent sense.

3. 3
   adjective

   Relating to property or to the ownership of something.

   The two families went to court over proprietary rights to the shoreline.

   The lawyer explained the proprietary interest each partner held in the business.

   Similarproprietorial

   Note

   The word reached English through French propriétaire from Latin proprietārius, built on proprietas, "property". In this broad sense it usually sits before nouns of law and business, as in proprietary rights. Every later meaning, from patented products to a possessive manner, grows out of this plain idea of owning.

4. 4
   possessiveadjective

   Behaving as though something or someone is one's own and guarding it jealously.

   The head chef had grown proprietary about the kitchen and snapped at anyone who touched his knives.

   She was oddly proprietary about her younger brother, questioning every girl he dated.

   Similarproprietorial

5. 5
   private (not state)adjective

   Owned privately rather than publicly.

   She enrolled at a proprietary college that charged far more than the state university.

   Only hotel guests may fish in the proprietary lake behind the main building.

   Similarprivate

   Oppositepublic

6. 6
   adjective

   Owning property; holding ownership of something.

   Taxes fell lightly on the proprietary classes and heavily on their tenants.

   The proprietary partners kept control of the firm, while the junior staff had no say.

   Similarproprietorial

7. 7
   ownernouncountable

   A person who owns something, especially property or a business.

   The colony's proprietary named the governor and collected rents from the settlers.

   As sole proprietary of the newspaper, she answered to no board.

   Similarowner, proprietor

8. 8
   spy frontnouncountable

   In intelligence work, a genuine, lawfully operating company that also secretly serves as cover for spying.

   The agency set up a string of proprietaries, from a travel agency to a charter airline, to move people and money quietly.

   Because the proprietary paid its taxes and its staff like any other firm, few people suspected it.

   Similarfront

   Note

   Intelligence writing uses the noun for a front that genuinely trades. An "operating proprietary" is incorporated, files its tax returns and holds the licenses any firm needs, and that ordinary paperwork is the cover. The term belongs above all to writing about the CIA: Victor Marchetti and John D. Marks describe proprietaries running their own finances with little oversight from headquarters.

9. 9
   ownership rightsnoununcountable

   The rights held by a proprietor over what is owned.

   The charter granted the duke full proprietary of the colony, including the right to collect rents.

   Disputes over the proprietary of the fishing grounds dragged on for decades.

   Similarownership

10. 10
    group of ownersnoununcountable

    Proprietors considered together as a group.

    The landed proprietary of the region resisted every attempt at land reform.

    Shopkeepers complained that the town council spoke only for the proprietary and never for the tenants.

11. 11
    monk keeping goodsnouncountable

    A monk who kept goods and belongings for himself despite having renounced all possessions when he took his vows.

    The visiting bishop found three proprietaries in the abbey and ordered their goods given to the poor.

    The abbot treated a proprietary as a breaker of his vows and barred him from the chapter.

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