Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Nay

Nay (nā), adv. [Icel. nei; akin to E. no. See No, adv.] 1. No; — a negative answer to a question asked, or a request made, now superseded by no. See Yes.

And eke when I say "ye," ne say not "nay." Chaucer.

I tell you nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewisr perish. Luke xiii. 3.

And now do they thrust us out privily? nay, verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out. Acts xvi. 37.

He that will not when he may, When he would he shall have nay. Old Prov.

☞ Before the time of Henry VIII. nay was used to answer simple questions, and no was used when the form of the question involved a negative expression; nay was the simple form, no the emphatic. Skeat.

2. Not this merely, but also; not only so, but; — used to mark the addition or substitution of a more explicit or more emphatic phrase.

☞ Nay in this sense may be interchanged with yea. "Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir." Shak.

Nay, n.; pl. Nays. 1. Denial; refusal.

2. a negative vote; one who votes in the negative.

It is no nay, there is no denying it. [Obs.] haucer.

Nay, v. t. & i. To refuse. [Obs.] Holinshed.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.