nay

Adverb

nay (not comparable)

1. (archaic, dialectal, otherwise humorous) No.
   • Duke Magnus, Duke Magnus, plight thee to me,
     I pray you still so freely;
     Say me not nay, but yes, yes!1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 243
2. (archaic, dialectal) Introducing a statement, without direct negation.
   • Nay, what are you smiling at so damnably?1876, Henry James, Roderick Hudson
3. (archaic, otherwise humorous) Or rather, or should I say; moreover (introducing a stronger and more appropriate expression than the preceding one).
   • His face was dirty, nay, filthy.
   • […] And proved not only horse, but cows, / Nay pigs, were of the elder house: / For beasts, when man was but a piece / Of earth himself, did th' earth possess.1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 2

Interjection

1. (archaic) No.

Noun

nay (plural nays)

1. A vote against.
   • I vote nay, even though the motion is popular, because I would rather be right than popular.
   • Recently senators could fax in their yeas or nays to the committee chairman.2009 January 6, “Still Broken After All These Years”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2018

   Antonyms:

   aye, yea

2. A person who voted against.
   • The vote is 4 in favor and 20 opposed; the nays have it.
3. (archaic) A denial; a refusal.
   • And my povert' no wight nor can nor may
     Make comparison, it is no nay.14th c, Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Clerk's Tale”, in D. Laing Purves, editor, The Canterbury Tales and Faerie Queene, with Other Poems of Chaucer and Spenser, published 1870, page 100

Verb

nay (third-person singular simple present nays, present participle naying, simple past and past participle nayed)

1. (obsolete) To refuse.
   • the cardinall then being bishop of Winchester, tooke vpon him the state of cardinall, which was naied and denaied him, by the king of most noble memorie1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC

Adjective

nay (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Nary; not any
   • 'Tis easy to do this experiment, though nay substance will do: we shall need a special one.
   • Nay man could have come out of such a situation unscathed.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: NAY

NAY

1. (abbreviation) Abbreviation of Nayarit: a state of Mexico.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Nay

Nay (plural Nays)

1. A surname.