negatives

Noun

negative (plural negatives)

1. Refusal or withholding of assents; prohibition, veto
   • “Upon my word, I can’t eat a morsel,” answered the lady […] There is indeed in perfect beauty a power which none almost can withstand; for my landlady, though she was not pleased at the negative given to the supper, declared she had never seen so lovely a creature.1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC
2. An unfavorable point or characteristic.
3. A right of veto.
   • And as to the Constitutionality of laws, that point will come before the Judges in their proper official character. In this character they have a negative on the laws.1787, Luther Martin, cited in The Constitutional Convention Of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia Of America's Founding (2005), Volume 1, page 391
4. An image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse.

   Antonyms:

   positive

5. A word that indicates negation.
   • "Why, she is one of those persons whom negatives seem invented to describe—I doubt whether she is worth one single bad quality."1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 191
6. A negative quantity.

See all 28 meanings of negative