proprietary

Pluralproprietaries

1. 1
   trade secretadjective

   Made only by the company that owns the legal right to it, such as a secret recipe or a patent.

   The drink is made from a proprietary recipe that only two people know.

   Their running shirts use a proprietary fabric that keeps you dry.

   Similarpatented, branded, trademarked

   Oppositenonproprietary

2. 2
   closed systemadjective

   Not following the usual shared rules, and controlled by one company.

   My old phone used a proprietary charger that fit no other phone.

   You need special software to open files in that proprietary format.

   Similarclosed, nonstandard

   Oppositenonproprietary

   Note
3. 3
   adjective

   Having to do with owning things.

   The court had to decide who had proprietary rights to the old farm.

   The museum says it has a proprietary claim to the painting.

   Similarproprietorial

   Note
4. 4
   possessiveadjective

   Acting as if something or someone belongs only to you.

   He gets very proprietary about his grill and won't let anyone else cook.

   She was proprietary about the project and did not like other people's ideas.

   Similarproprietorial

5. 5
   private (not state)adjective

   Owned by a person or company, not by everyone.

   We can't swim there because it is a proprietary lake.

   The little church in the park is a proprietary chapel that belongs to one family.

   Similarprivate

   Oppositepublic

6. 6
   adjective

   Owning something, such as land or a business.

   The proprietary families of the valley owned nearly every farm.

   Only the proprietary members of the club could vote.

   Similarproprietorial

7. 7
   ownernouncountable

   A person who owns something.

   The proprietary of the land lived far away in the city.

   Each proprietary paid a small tax on his shop.

   Similarowner, proprietor

8. 8
   spy frontnouncountable

   A real business that is also secretly used to hide spying.

   The small airline was really a proprietary that flew spies as well as cargo.

   Agents ran the shipping company as a proprietary for almost ten years.

   Similarfront

   Note
9. 9
   ownership rightsnoununcountable

   The rights that an owner has over the thing they own.

   The king gave the family the proprietary of the island.

   After the sale, the proprietary of the mill passed to the new owner.

   Similarownership

10. 10
    group of ownersnoununcountable

    All the owners of something, thought of as one group.

    The landed proprietary of the county was against the new tax.

    The proprietary meets once a year to share out the profits.

11. 11
    monk keeping goodsnouncountable

    A monk who kept things for himself after promising to give up everything he owned.

    The abbot learned that one monk was a proprietary who kept coins hidden under his bed.

    Any proprietary in the house had to hand over what he had kept.

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