Word.ws English Dictionary

withsay

withsay verb: to contradict or deny.

Verb

withsay (third-person singular simple present withsays, present participle withsaying, simple past and past participle withsaid)

  1. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To contradict or deny.
    • Sythe I have sayd it, I wyll never withsay it.1530, John Palsgrave, Lesclarcissement, 783/2
  2. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To gainsay, to oppose in speech (and by extension writing).
    • Let the lewd with faith and fervour worship. With will will we withstand, withsay.1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC
  3. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To forbid, to refuse to allow, give, or permit.
    • I wyll not withsaye thy desyre.c. 1530, St. German's Dyaloge Doctoure & Student, VI f xiii
  4. (archaic, obsolete, transitive) To decline, to refuse to do or accept.
    • This is in noe wise to bee withsaid, for it is the King's honour.c. 1670, ordinance in Collection of Ordinances of the Royal Household - 1327–1694 (1790), 372
    • I sent to them also martyrs, confessors, and doctors, and they accorded not to them, ne to their doctrine, but because it appertaineth not to me to withsay thy request, I shall give to them my preachers, by whom they may be enlumined and made clean, or else I shall come against them myself if they...1900 (original version 1260), Jacobus (de Voragine), William Caxton, Frederick Startridge Ellis, The Golden Legend, Or, Lives of the Saints - Volume 4

Synonyms of withsay

Forms of withsay

third-person singular presentwithsays
present participlewithsaying
past participlewithsaid
pastwithsaid

Origin of withsay

From Middle English withseien, from Old English wiþseċġan (“to speak against; to denounce, renounce, or deny”), corresponding to with- + say. Cognate with Old Saxon witharseggian (“to object”), Low German wedderseggen (“to renounce”), German widersagen (“to renounce”), Dutch wederzeggen and weerzeggen.

Words formed from withsay

Questions about withsay

What does withsay mean?
Withsay means to contradict or deny.
What part of speech is withsay?
Withsay is a verb.
What is the past tense of withsay?
The past tense of withsay is withsaid.

Words near withsay in the dictionary

  1. withsaved
  2. withsaves
  3. withsaving
  4. withsaw
  5. withsaws
  6. withsay
  7. withsayer
  8. withsayers
  9. withsaying
  10. withsays
  11. withset

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: withsay (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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