if the government privatizes a company or activity that it owns or operates, it sells the company etc to a business or to members of the public, who become its new shareholder S:
• the Argentine government's drive to privatize a number of businesses
• When it privatized agriculture, Vietnam went from rice-importer to exporter in one growing season.
— compare nationalize — privatized also privatised adjective :
• the privatised gas industry
Financial and business terms. 2012.