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Negative   /nˈɛgətɪv/   Listen
adjective
Negative  adj.  
1.
Denying; implying, containing, or asserting denial, negation or refusal; returning the answer no to an inquiry or request; refusing assent; as, a negative answer; a negative opinion; opposed to affirmative. "If thou wilt confess, Or else be impudently negative." "Denying me any power of a negative voice." "Something between an affirmative bow and a negative shake."
2.
Not positive; without affirmative statement or demonstration; indirect; consisting in the absence of something; privative; as, a negative argument; negative evidence; a negative morality; negative criticism. "There in another way of denying Christ,... which is negative, when we do not acknowledge and confess him."
3.
(Logic) Asserting absence of connection between a subject and a predicate; as, a negative proposition.
4.
(Photog.) Of or pertaining to a picture upon glass or other material, in which the lights and shades of the original, and the relations of right and left, are reversed.
5.
(Chem.) Metalloidal; nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic; as, the nitro group is negative. Note: This word, derived from electro-negative, is now commonly used in a more general sense, when acidiferous is the intended signification.
Negative crystal.
(a)
A cavity in a mineral mass, having the form of a crystal.
(b)
A crystal which has the power of negative double refraction. See refraction.
negative electricity (Elec.), the kind of electricity which is developed upon resin or ebonite when rubbed, or which appears at that pole of a voltaic battery which is connected with the plate most attacked by the exciting liquid; formerly called resinous electricity. Opposed to positive electricity. Formerly, according to Franklin's theory of a single electric fluid, negative electricity was supposed to be electricity in a degree below saturation, or the natural amount for a given body. See Electricity.
Negative eyepiece. (Opt.) see under Eyepiece.
Negative quantity (Alg.), a quantity preceded by the negative sign, or which stands in the relation indicated by this sign to some other quantity. See Negative sign (below).
Negative rotation, right-handed rotation. See Right-handed, 3.
Negative sign, the sign -, or minus (opposed in signification to +, or plus), indicating that the quantity to which it is prefixed is to be subtracted from the preceding quantity, or is to be reckoned from zero or cipher in the opposite direction to that of quanties having the sign plus either expressed or understood; thus, in a - b, b is to be substracted from a, or regarded as opposite to it in value; and -10° on a thermometer means 10° below the zero of the scale.


noun
Negative  n.  
1.
A proposition by which something is denied or forbidden; a conception or term formed by prefixing the negative particle to one which is positive; an opposite or contradictory term or conception. "This is a known rule in divinity, that there is no command that runs in negatives but couches under it a positive duty."
2.
A word used in denial or refusal; as, not, no. Note: In Old England two or more negatives were often joined together for the sake of emphasis, whereas now such expressions are considered ungrammatical, being chiefly heard in iliterate speech. A double negative is now sometimes used as nearly or quite equivalent to an affirmative. "No wine ne drank she, neither white nor red." "These eyes that never did nor never shall So much as frown on you."
3.
The refusal or withholding of assents; veto. "If a kind without his kingdom be, in a civil sense, nothing, then... his negative is as good as nothing."
4.
That side of a question which denies or refuses, or which is taken by an opposing or denying party; the relation or position of denial or opposition; as, the question was decided in the negative.
5.
(Photog.) A picture upon glass or other material, in which the light portions of the original are represented in some opaque material (usually reduced silver), and the dark portions by the uncovered and transparent or semitransparent ground of the picture. Note: A negative is chiefly used for producing photographs by means of passing light through it and acting upon sensitized paper, thus producing on the paper a positive picture.
6.
(Elect.) The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.
Negative pregnant (Law), a negation which implies an affirmation.


verb
Negative  v. t.  (past & past part. negatived; pres. part. negativing)  
1.
To prove unreal or untrue; to disprove. "The omission or infrequency of such recitals does not negative the existence of miracles."
2.
To reject by vote; to refuse to enact or sanction; as, the Senate negatived the bill.
3.
To neutralize the force of; to counteract.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Negative" Quotes from Famous Books



... lover of choice fruit. An arbor is visible, or rather the wreck of an arbor, and under it a table still stands not entirely destroyed by time. At the aspect of this garden that is no more, the negative joys of the peaceful life of the provinces may be divined as we divine the history of a worthy tradesman when we read the epitaph on his tomb. To complete the mournful and tender impressions which seize the soul, on one of the ...
— La Grande Breteche • Honore de Balzac
... reverse. Indeed, a short march of three miles by the Ely's Ford, Haden's Ford, and Greenwood Gold Mines roads, none of which were held by the enemy, would have enabled Reynolds to strike Stuart in rear of his left flank, or seize Dowdall's clearing by a coup de main, and absolutely negative all Stuart's efforts in front of Fairview. Or an advance through the forest would have accomplished the same end. To be sure, the ground was difficult, and cut up by many brooks and ravines; but such ground had been, in this campaign, no ...
— The Campaign of Chancellorsville • Theodore A. Dodge
... kind of negative praise, that needs more wary caution, by purposely giving strange advice and suggestions, and by adopting absurd corrections. For if he raises no objection but nods assent to everything, and ...
— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch
... things which have never been and never will be, there are some possible; or whether all that is not, all that has never been, all that will never be, was impossible. A famous dialectician of the Megaric Sect, named Diodorus, gave a negative answer to the first of these two questions and an affirmative to the second; but Chrysippus vehemently opposed him. Here are two passages of Cicero (epist. 4, lib. 9, Ad Familiar.): "[Greek: peri dynaton] me scito [Greek: ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz
... him to the field of battle. In consequence of Sir Arthur's neglect my grand-uncle was compelled to take the next boat back to England. There was a question asked in the Commons of the day about Sir Arthur's conduct. I do not know what the question was, but the answer was in the negative, though I am not quite sure what that means. In any case, my grand-uncle was a greater soldier than Wellington. My mother often heard ...
— The Hand in the Dark • Arthur J. Rees


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