Middle English

Alternative forms

• withseyen, wiþseyen, wiðseyen
• witheseine
• withseggen, witsiggen
• withseiden, witseiden

Verb

withseien

1. to speak against, that is:
   1. to protest, to deny; to refute, to speak out against, to oppose in speech
      • c. 1225, Ancrene Riwle (Cleopatra C vi), 68:

        Ȝef an mon...deð swa muche mis. þet hit beo se open sunne. þet he hit ne maȝe nanesweis allunge wið seggen.

      • c. 1445, in W. P. Baildon, Select cases in Chancery, A.D. 1364 to 1471 (1896), 136:

        He withseieth not the matier conteigned in the seid bille of complainte.

   2. to disparage; to denounce
   3. to contemn, to display contempt for
   4. to renounce, to repudiate, to give up
   • c. 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Seconde Nonnes Tale in the tales of Caunterbury, 447:

     Euery cristen wight shal han penaunce
     But if that he his cristendom withseye.

   1. to refuse; to forbid, to refuse permission to
      • c. 1450, Merlin (1899), XIV 204:

        I will in no wise with-sey that ye requere.

   2. to decline, to refuse to do or accept
      • c. 1225, Ancrene Riwle (Cleopatra C vi), 175:

        Þeo...wið seggeð þe grant þer of wið an wille heorte.

      • 1402, Thomas Hoccleve, Letters of Cupid, 108:

        She...So lyberal ys, she wol no wyght with-sey.

      • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, Bk.XIII, Ch.iij:

        ‘Sir,’ he seyde, ‘I myght nat withsey myne unclis wyll.’

   3. to reply
   4. (law) to appeal, to contest the validity of a legal decision
   5. (law) to challenge, to contest the validity of a claim or argument
   6. (law) to disavow, to contest the validity of an oath

Descendants

• English: withsay

References

1. ↑ Middle English Dictionary. "Withseien".