Word Direct Answers

What does "nay" mean?

Nay: And now do they thrust us out privily nay, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. Acts xvi.

Additional senses

  1. 2.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. 3.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.
  3. 4.Denial; refusal.
  4. 5.a negative vote; one who votes in the negative. It is no nay, there is no denying it. [Obs.] haucer.
  5. 6.To refuse. [Obs.] Holinshed.

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