NAY

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does nay mean? 

• NAY (noun)
  The noun NAY has 1 sense:

1. a negative

  Familiarity information: NAY used as a noun is very rare.

• NAY (adverb)
  The adverb NAY has 1 sense:

1. not this merely but also; not only so but

  Familiarity information: NAY used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NAY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A negative

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Context example:

the nays have it

Hypernyms ("nay" is a kind of...):

negative (a reply of denial)

Antonym:

yea (an affirmative)

• NAY (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not this merely but also; not only so but

Context example:

each of us is peculiar, nay, in a sense unique

 Context examples 

Nay, she smiled sweetly upon him and thanked him.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Now they were as strangers; nay, worse than strangers, for they could never become acquainted.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Nay, and even if things so fell out that he was forced to keep his faith with Dr. Livesey, even then what danger lay before us!

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Nay, if you can use such a word, I can urge you no farther.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Nay, then I was not miserable.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Nay, it help him to grow as to his brain; for it all prove to him how right he was at the first in his surmises.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Nay, if you are serious about it, I shall consider the matter is absolutely settled.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

But his answer was serious, nay, solemn.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Nay, madam, there again you ask me more than I can possibly answer.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nay; he doesn't live here: he is only staying a while.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)