Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use nay in a sentence

34 example sentences · adverb, interjection, noun

Nay means no. Example: “His face was dirty, nay, filthy.”

Examples of nay by meaning

adverbOr rather, or should I say; moreover (introducing a stronger and more appropriate expression than the preceding one).

  • His face was dirty, nay, filthy.
  • Nay, give me leave,— I urge, from your own grant, it has not been.2016 February 2, John Dryden, The works of John Dryden, Vol.7: Top English Literature (Top English Literature), VM eBooks

nounA 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

nounA person who voted against.

  • The vote is 4 in favor and 20 opposed; the nays have it.

adjectiveNary; 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.

More sentences with nay

  • Nay, no. ‘Tis when the workin’ stops when yer twixt wind and water.2019, Robert Eggers, Max Eggers, The Lighthouse (motion picture), spoken by Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). From the entry doldrums
  • Nay—heaw—so—Tummus; goo theaw an smeawtch Seroh o' Rutchot's iv yo bin so kipper.2014, John Collier, Tim Bobbin's Tummus and Meary. From the entry kipper
  • It's the screams of hundreds -- nay, thousands -- of Pine Nuts cheering.2014 February 12, Ellie Krupnick, “Chris Pine Gets The Brooding Cologne Ads His Face Deserves”, in HuffPost, archived from the original on…. From the entry pine nut
  • Freitag up in Sixth, or maybe Ver — nay, he’s gone to the gallows.2011, Elizabeth C. Bunce, Liar’s Moon, Arthur A. Levine Books, →ISBN, page 46. From the entry potioner
  • Punning, and competition therein, was encouraged—nay, actively abetted—by Callahan, himself a hopeless and utterly shameless paronomasiac.2004, Spider Robinson, Off The Wall At Callahan's, Macmillan, page 9. From the entry paronomasiac
  • "Nay, not well," replied Catweazle shivering miserably, "I have the bone-ache."1971, Richard Carpenter, Catweazle and the Magic Zodiac, Harmondsworth: Puffin Books, page 7. From the entry sorcerer
  • 'Nay, I wyll nat so,' seyde sir Trystrames, 'for here is none that woll gyff ryghtuous jugemente.15th century, Thomas Malory, Tale of Sir Tristram; published in Thomas Malory, Eugène Vinaver, editor, Malory: Works, London: Oxford…. From the entry fayre
  • Nay, she must be stedfast, even though false security had betrayed her hidden softness.1935, Charles Caldwell Dobie, San Francisco Tales, Digitized Reprint edition (Fiction), D. Appleton-Century, published 2007, page 190. From the entry stedfast
  • Nay, even although the world had no beginning, it would not be coeternal with God.1909, Maurice de Wolfe, History of Mediaeval Philosophy, Longmans, page 401. From the entry supereternal
  • Nay, tell us but which one!" All, all resembled her; but she herself 'twas ne'er.1906, Flowers of France: The Romantic Period. From the entry overfare
  • “Nay, this was a different sound, low and slithersome.2012, Laurie Halse Anderson, Forge. From the entry slithersome
  • Nay, she makes man discover that cradles should not be rocked, in order that her hands may be left free.1922, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “Education and Sex in Man, Woman and Child”, in Fantasia of the Unconscious, New York, N.Y.: Thomas…. From the entry the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world
  • Nay, I had a disciple with me.1901, Rudyard Kipling, Kim. From the entry chela
  • Nay! nay! stand of thyself, sonling.2004, Flora Annie Webster Steel, Dramatic History of India. From the entry sonling
  • Fancy roughdraws, but judgment smooths and finishes; nay, judgment does in deed comprehend wit, for no man can have that who has not wit.1987, Edward A. Watson, A study of selected English critical terms from 1650 to 1800. From the entry roughdraw
  • Nay, he was quite an adept, and was very effective as a change bowler, for in no time he demolished the castle of any batsman.1966, Gurdeep Singh, Cricket in Northern India, page 59. From the entry castle
  • Nay more, of onomatology proper as I understand it, that is of the question of personal names, not a word so far.1933, A. G. Morice, “Carrier Onomatology”, in American Anthropologist, volume 35, number 4, →DOI, →JSTOR, page 632. From the entry onomatology
  • Nay more ; that the construction employed to justify the ‘Sedition Act,’ would exhibit a phœnomenon without a parrallel in the political world.1919, Theodore Schroeder, Constitutional Free Speech Defined and Defended in an Unfinished Argument in a Case of Blasphemy, page 141. From the entry phœnomenon
  • Nay, fear not, birdling! let me gently Uplift and hold thee in my hand; Thou gazest on me so intently, Thou must my motive understand.1913, John L. Stoddard, Poems. From the entry birdling
  • Nay (as they all lean forward), 'tis an affair of two not four. (They draw back simultaneously, eying each other sheepishly when Mrs.1906, William Price Drury, Richard Pryce, A Privy Council: A Comedy in One Act, page 22. From the entry merrythought
  • Again we descend, perhaps to the dreary shore of some dead sea of life, where we may wander on unhopefully, nay, even unwishfully.1902, Mary Linskill, In Exchange for a Soul, page 126. From the entry unwishfully
  • Nay, hush thee, hush! and listen to yon blithesome, bubblesome, babbling brook how it sigheth 'mid the willows, whispereth under reedy bank and laugheth, rogue-like, in the shallows!2015, Jeffery Farnol, The Geste of Duke Jocelyn. From the entry bubblesome
  • Most of the people within ear-shot of the vote thought the vote went nay, but Tip in his usual bull-in-a-china-shop manner, rammed it on through declaring it passed.1993 January 29, Lee Mellinger, “MP5 10mm”, in rec.guns (Usenet). From the entry bull-in-a-china-shop
  • Their thought and passion create rhythms that shall not disguise, but reveal them in absolute nakedness ; nay, more, that shall set them in the most promulgatory light.1912, William Norman Guthrie, The vital study of literature, and other essays. From the entry promulgatory
  • A grand duke, or a lesser titled personage, in a car goes ram-jamming over Moscow at 40 miles an hour up, with no one to say him nay.1909, Around the World with Taft. From the entry ram-jam
  • But the master himself was an old Oxford miler, who could still bear it better than I; nay, as I flagged and stumbled, I heard him pounding steadily behind.1905, E.W. Hornung, A Thief in the Night. From the entry miler
  • Nay, I niver get ony harm, as I know on, fro' th' little chaps though I do shiver whiles, for their curses is summat flairsome to hearken to.1900, Halliwell Sutcliffe, Shameless Wayne. From the entry flairsome

Meaning of nay

  1. adverb No.
  2. adverb Introducing a statement, without direct negation.
  3. adverb Or rather, or should I say; moreover (introducing a stronger and more appropriate expression than the preceding one).

Full definition of nay

Questions about nay in a sentence

How do you use nay in a sentence?
Nay is used as an adverb, interjection and noun. For example: “His face was dirty, nay, filthy.”
What is a short sentence with nay?
“His face was dirty, nay, filthy.”
What does nay mean?
Nay means no.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nay (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use nay in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/nay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.