Nay

/neɪ/ · adverb

Meaning

(archaic or regional, otherwise humorous) No..

Definitions by Sense

1. (archaic or regional, otherwise humorous) No.
2. (archaic or regional) Introducing a statement, without direct negation.
3. (archaic, otherwise humorous) Or rather, or should I say; moreover (introducing a stronger and more appropriate expression than the preceding one).
4. (archaic) No.
5. A vote against.
6. A person who voted against.
7. (archaic) A denial; a refusal.
8. (obsolete) To refuse.

Example Sentences

Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, plight thee to me, I pray you still so freely; Say me not nay, but yes, yes!

Nay, what are you smiling at so damnably?

His face was dirty, nay, filthy.

[…] 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.

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,

And all rejected: Has this course been used? Arch. We grant it has not; but— King. Nay, give me leave,— I urge, from your own grant, it has not been. If then, in process of a petty sum, Both parties having not been fully heard,[…]

Earnestly bent upon fulfilling the weighty, nay solemn, responsibilities of his office at all hazard, even at the risk of so far neglecting his parliamentary duties as to appear upon the division-list less frequently than any of his colleagues, Sir John Pakington wore the wooden spoon at the whitebait dinner, though with an air of waggery — almost as a decoration.

I vote nay, even though the motion is popular, because I would rather be right than popular.

Synonyms for nay

Antonyms for nay

Related Words

Word Forms

• nays
• naying
• nayed

Usage Notes

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