proprietary Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an unincorporated business owned by a single person who is responsible for its liabilities and entitled to its profits
    proprietorship.
  2. adjective protected by trademark or patent or copyright; made or produced or distributed by one having exclusive rights
    • `Tylenol' is a proprietary drug of which `acetaminophen' is the generic form

WordNet

Pro*pri"e*ta*ry noun
Etymology
L. proprietarius: cf. F. propriétaire. See Propriety, and cf. Proprietor.
Wordforms
plural Proprietaries
Definitions
  1. A proprietor or owner; one who has exclusive title to a thing; one who possesses, or holds the title to, a thing in his own right. Fuller.
  2. A body proprietors, taken collectively.
  3. (Eccl.) A monk who had reserved goods and effects to himself, notwithstanding his renunciation of all at the time of profession.
Pro*pri"e*ta*ry adjective
Etymology
L. proprietarius.
Definitions
  1. Belonging, or pertaining, to a proprietor; considered as property; owned; as, proprietary medicine. U. S. Statutes.

Webster 1913