Word Direct Answers

nay

nay is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 6 senses. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.And now do they thrust us out privily nay, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. Acts xvi.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 4.Denial; refusal.
  5. 5.a negative vote; one who votes in the negative. It is no nay, there is no denying it. [Obs.] haucer.
  6. 6.To refuse. [Obs.] Holinshed.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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Reverse-dictionary questions

Definition-first questions whose answer is nay.

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