nay /ˈne/
(ad.)否,不,不但如是拒絕,反對,投反對票
nay adv.
1. No; -- a negative answer to a question asked, or a request made, now superseded by no. Opposed to aye or yea. See also Yes.
And eke when I say =\“ye,” ne say not “nay.”\= --Chaucer.
I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. --Luke xiii. 3.
And now do they thrust us out privily? nay, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. --Acts xvi. 37.
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.
2. 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.”
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Nay, n.; pl. Nays
1. Denial; refusal.
2. A negative vote; one who votes in the negative.
It is no nay, there is no denying it. [Obs.]
Nay, v. t. & i. To refuse. [Obs.]
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nay
n : a negative; "the nays have it" [ant: yea]
adv : not this merely but also; not only so but; "each of us is
peculiar, nay, in a sense unique"