Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Nay
Nay
,Noun.
pl.
Nays
. 1.
Denial; refusal.
2.
A negative vote; one who votes in the negative.
It is no nay
, there is no denying it.
[Obs.]
haucer.
Nay
,Verb.
T.
& I.
To refuse.
[Obs.]
Holinshed.
Webster 1828 Edition
Nay
NAY
,adv.
1.
No; a word that expresses negation.I tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Luke 13.
2.
It expresses also refusal.He that will not when he may, When he would he shall have nay.
[In these senses it is now rarely used; no being substituted.]
3.
Not only so; not this alone; intimating that something is to be added y way of amplification. He requested an answer; nay, he urged it.NAY
,Noun.
NAY
,Verb.
T.
Definition 2024
nay
nay
English
Adverb
nay (not comparable)
- (archaic) no
Derived terms
Conjunction
nay
- or even, or more like, or should I say. Introduces a stronger and more appropriate expression than the preceding one.
- His face was dirty, nay filthy.
- 1663, Hudibras, by Samuel Butler, part 1, canto 2
- [...] And proved not only horse, but cows, / Nay pigs, were of the elder house: / For beasts, when man was but a piece / Of earth himself, did th' earth possess.
- 1748. David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 18.
- And even in our wildest and most wandering reveries, nay in our very dreams, we shall find, if we reflect, that the imagination ran not altogether at adventures,
Translations
or even
Noun
nay (plural nays)
- A vote against.
- I vote nay, even though the motion is popular, because I would rather be right than popular.
- A person who voted against.
- The vote is 4 in favor and 20 opposed; the nays have it.
Antonyms
- (A vote against): yea
Verb
nay (third-person singular simple present nays, present participle naying, simple past and past participle nayed)
- (obsolete) To refuse.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Holinshed to this entry?)
Adjective
nay (not comparable)