Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Nay"

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

And eke when I say ``ye,'' ne say not ``nay.''
--Chaucer.

I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all
likewisr 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. --Skeat.

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.'' --Shak.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

2. a negative vote; one who votes in the negative.

{It is no nay}, there is no denying it. [Obs.] --haucer.

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

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