Library / English Dictionary

NAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A negative

Example:

the nays have it

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

negative (a reply of denial)

Antonym:

yea (an affirmative)

 II. (adverb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not this merely but also; not only so but

Example:

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

Classified under:

Adverbs

Credits

 Context examples: 

Nay, Grey Beaver himself sometimes tossed him a piece of meat, and defended him against the other dogs in the eating of it.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Nay, I had it from you.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Nay, dear, you must go, for it may be the one great chance of your life.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Nay, my dear, I'm sure I don't pretend to say that there an't.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Nay, nay, I entreat you; for one moment put down your work.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If it were ever so small—nay, if it were no bigger than my thumb—I should be very happy, and love it dearly.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Nay, he was bringing home the goose as a peace-offering to his wife.

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

Nay, sometimes the floor is strewed with dust on purpose, when the person to be admitted happens to have powerful enemies at court; and I have seen a great lord with his mouth so crammed, that when he had crept to the proper distance from the throne; he was not able to speak a word.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He knew full well, from his Spencer, that man can never attain ultimate knowledge of anything, and that the mystery of beauty was no less than that of life—nay, more that the fibres of beauty and life were intertwisted, and that he himself was but a bit of the same nonunderstandable fabric, twisted of sunshine and star-dust and wonder.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Nay, the tale grows worse.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)