GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found 3 definitions

1.       
   nay , adv. [Icel. nei; akin to E. no. See No, adv.]
   No; -- a negative answer to a question asked, or a request made, now superseded by no. Opposed to aye or yea. See also Yes.
   1913 Webster
   +PJC
   And eke when I say “ye,” ne say not “nay.”
   Chaucer.
   
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   I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
   Luke xiii. 3.
   
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   And now do they thrust us out privily? nay, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.
   Acts xvi. 37.
   
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   He that will not when he may,
   When he would he shall have nay.
   Old Prov.
   
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   ☞ Before the time of Henry VIII. nay was used to answer simple questions, and no was used when the form of the question involved a negative expression; nay was the simple form, no the emphatic.
   Skeat.
   
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   Not this merely, but also; not only so, but; -- used to mark the addition or substitution of a more explicit or more emphatic phrase.
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   ☞ Nay in this sense may be interchanged with yea. “Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir.”
   Shak.
   
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2.       
   Nay, n.; pl. Nays .
   Denial; refusal.
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   A negative vote; one who votes in the negative.
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   It is no nay, there is no denying it. [Obs.]
   haucer.
   
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3.       
   Nay, v. t. & i. To refuse. [Obs.]
   Holinshed.
   
   1913 Webster