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nay |
4 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Nay \Nay\, adv [Icel. nei; akin to E. no See {No}, adv.] 1. No -- a negative answer to a question asked, or a request made now superseded by no See {Yes}. And eke when I say ``ye,'' ne say not ``nay.'' --Chaucer. I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewisr perish. --Luke xiii. 3. And now do they thrust us out privily? nay, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out --Acts xvi. 37. He that will not when he may When he would he shall have nay. --Old Prov. Note: 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. 2. Not this merely, but also not only so but -- used to mark the addition or substitution of a more explicit or more emphatic phrase. Note: Nay in this sense may be interchanged with yea. ``Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir.'' --Shak. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Nay \Nay\, n.; 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. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Nay \Nay\, v. t. & i. To refuse. [Obs.] --Holinshed. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: nay n : a negative; "the nays have it" [ant: {yea}] adv : not this merely but also not only so but "each of us is peculiar, nay, in a sense unique"
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