private businessnoun
ukus[ C ] FINANCE a company that is owned by one person or a small group of people, for example a family, and whose shares are not traded on a stock market:
Many of these small private businesses employ fewer than ten people.
[ C ] ECONOMICS a company that is not owned by the government:
private and state-owned businesses
[ U ] ECONOMICS all the companies that are owned and controlled by one person or a small group of people, considered as a whole:
The public sector continues to dominate the country's economy, while an increasing number of restrictions are imposed on private business.