• −ve(abbreviation)

FromMiddle Englishnegative,negatif, fromOld Frenchnegatif, fromLatinnegātīvus(“that denies, negative”), fromnegāre(“to deny”); seenegate.

• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/ˈnɛɡətɪv/

  • Audio(Southern England):

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• (General American,Canada)IPA^(key):/ˈnɛɡətɪv/,/-ɾɪv/

  • Audio(California):

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• (General Australian)IPA^(key):/ˈneɡətɪv/,/-ɾɪv/
• Hyphenation:neg‧a‧tive

negative (comparativemorenegative,superlativemostnegative)

1. Notpositive norneutral.

   Synonyms:bad,deleterious;see alsoThesaurus:bad

   Antonyms:good;see alsoThesaurus:good

   • 1834,L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXIII, inFrancesca Carrara. […], volume III, London:Richard Bentley, […], (successor toHenry Colburn),→OCLC,page191:

     "Why, she is one of those persons whomnegatives seem invented to describe—I doubt whether she is worth one single bad quality."

2. (physics) Of electrical charge of anelectron and related particles[from the 18th c.]
3. (mathematics) Of a number: less than zero.

   Antonyms:positive,nonnegative

   Hypernyms:nonzero,nonnegative

   1. (weather) Less than zero degreesCelsius orFahrenheit.

      I was out innegative weather today.

4. (linguistics,logic)Denying aproposition;negating aconcept.

   Synonym:negatory

   Antonyms:affirmative;intensifying,intensive,intensitive

5. Damaging;undesirable;unfavourable.

   The high exchange rate will have anegative effect on our profits.

   Customers didn’t like it: feedback was mostlynegative.

6. (often usedpejoratively)Pessimistic; not tending to see thebright side of things.

   I don’t like to hang around him very much because he can be sonegative about his petty problems.

7. Of or relating to aphotographicimage in which thecolours of the original, and therelations ofleft andright, arereversed.
8. (chemistry)Metalloidal,nonmetallic; contrasted withpositive orbasic.

   The nitro group isnegative.

9. (New Agejargon,derogatory)Often preceded byemotion,energy,feeling, orthought: to beavoided,bad,difficult,disagreeable,painful, potentiallydamaging,unpleasant,unwanted.
   • 2009, Christopher Johns,Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, John Wiley & Sons,page15:

     Negative feelings can be worked through and their energy converted into positive energy... In crisis, normal patterns of self-organization fail, resulting in anxiety (negative energy).

   • 2011, Joe Vitale,The Key: the missing secret for attracting anything you want, Body, Mind & Spirit,[1]

     The threat ofnegative feelings may seem very real, but they are nothing more than mirages... Allow the unwanted feelings to evaporate and dissolve as the mirages that they are.

   • 2011, Anne Jones,Healing Negative Energies, Hachette,page118:

     If you have been badly affected bynegative energy a salt bath is wonderful for clearing and cleansing yourself... Salt attractsnegative energy and will draw it away from you.

10. Characterized by the presence offeatures which do notsupport ahypothesis.
11. (slang)HIV negative.
    • quoted in2013, William I. Johnston,HIV-Negative: How the Uninfected Are Affected by AIDS (page 145)

      We certainly told him at that time that I wasnegative. We talked about transmission. We told him we don't do anything that would cause me to become positive.

12. (slang)COVID-19 negative.
13. (hyperbolic)No,notany,zero.
    • 1982 August 14, Renee Holmes, “Personal advertisement”, inGay Community News, volume10, number 5, page15:

      Thenegative contact we get inside here [prison] is enough to make you even more bitter and further alienated from society and ourselves.

    • 2002 September 7, Jef, “MST3K DVD Collection One”, inrec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc‎^[2] (Usenet):

      The hell? I wish I could follow you on that, but it makesnegative sense.

• (damaging):undesirable

• positive

negative (pluralnegatives)

1. Refusal orwithholding ofassents;prohibition,veto[from 15th c.]
   • 1749,Henry Fielding,The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume(please specify |volume=I to VI), London:A[ndrew] Millar, […],→OCLC:

     “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 thenegative given to the supper, declared she had never seen so lovely a creature.

   • 1843 April,Thomas Carlyle, “ch. XV, Practical — Devotional”, inPast and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.:Charles C[offin] Little andJames Brown, published1843,→OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):

     Geoffrey RiddellBishop of Ely […] made a request of him for timber from his woods towards certain edifices going on atGlemsford.The Abbot, a great builder himself, disliked the request; could not however give it anegative.

2. An unfavorable point or characteristic.
3. (law) Aright of veto.
   • 1787,Luther Martin, cited inThe Constitutional Convention Of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia Of America's Founding (2005), Volume 1,page 391

     And as to the Constitutionality of laws, that point will come before the Judges in their proper official character. In this character they have anegative on the laws.

   • 1788, Alexander Hamilton,The Federalist, no. 68

     The qualifiednegative of the President differs widely from this absolutenegative of the British sovereign;[…]

   • 1983,INS v. Chadha,Opinion of the Court

     In the convention there does not seem to have been much diversity of opinion on the subject of the propriety of giving to the president anegative on the laws.

4. (photography) Animage in whichdarkareas representlight ones, and theconverse.[from 19th c.]

   Antonym:positive

   Coordinate term:diapositive

5. (grammar) Aword that indicatesnegation.
6. (mathematics) A negativequantity.
7. (weightlifting) Arepetitionperformed with aweight in which themuscle begins atmaximumcontraction and isslowlyextended; amovement performed using only theeccentricphase ofmuscle movement.
8. The negativeplate of avoltaic orelectrolyticcell.
9. (logic) A statement that something didn’t happen or doesn’t exist.

   You can’t prove anegative.

negative (third-person singular simple presentnegatives,present participlenegativing,simple past and past participlenegatived)

1. (transitive) Torefuse; toveto.
   • 1887,L. T. Meade, chapter XVIII, inThe Palace Beautiful: A Story for Girls‎^[3]:

     Poppy earnestly begged to be allowed to go with Jasmine on the roof, but this the good ladynegatived with horror.

   • 1924,Herman Melville, chapter 12, inBilly Budd‎^[4], London: Constable & Co.:

     And being of warm blood he had not the phlegm tacitly tonegative any proposition by unresponsive inaction.

2. (transitive) Tocontradict.
   • 1892,Thomas Hardy, chapter XXXIII, inTess of the d'Urbervilles‎^[5]:

     "A comely maid, that," said the other.
     "True, comely enough. But unless I make a great mistake—" And henegatived the remainder of the definition forthwith.

3. (transitive) Todisprove.
   • 1882,J. H. Riddell, “Old Mrs Jones”, inThe Collected Ghost Stories of Mrs. J. H. Riddell‎^[6], Dover, published1977, page192:

     At one time an idea got abroad that the whole tale of her fortune had been a myth;[…] but the boastings of various servants who declared they had seen her with “rolls on rolls” of banknotes[…]negatived the truth of this statement.

4. (transitive) To makeineffective; toneutralize, tonegate.
   • 1918 May 9,Lytton Strachey, “[Florence Nightingale.] Chapter III”, inEminent Victorians: Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Arnold, General Gordon (Library of English Literature;LEL 11347), London:Chatto & Windus,→OCLC,page162:

     "The War Office," said Miss Nightingale, "is a very slow office, an enormously expensive office, and one in which the Minister's intentions can be entirelynegatived by all his sub-departments, and those of each of the sub-departments by every other."

   • 1945 March and April, T. F. Cameron, “New Works Procedure”, inRailway Magazine, page71:

     In the nature of things, much railway capital expenditure on stations and depots was in the immediate vicinity, if not in the heart, of towns, and extensions or remodellings, apart from being extremely costly, may be entirelynegatived by the impossibility of securing the necessary land.

   • 1950,Norman Lindsay,Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page62:

     He was coatless and his thumbs were hooked negligently in a leather belt, therebynegativing a tendency to balance himself on an inclined plane backwards.

   • 1959,Flavius Josephus, chapter 5, inG. A. Williamson, transl.,The Jewish War, Penguin, published1970, page98:

     Yet he made his largesse daily more lavish, as he saw the kingnegativing his efforts by taking care of the orphans and showing his remorse for the murder of his sons by his tenderness towards their little ones.

   • 1963 January, G. Freeman Allen, “Why B.R. are dropping high-power diesel-hydraulics”, inModern Railways, page25:

     While the diesel-hydraulic system has been failing to live up to its early promise, development in other directions hasnegatived some of the advantages which prompted its trial.

• negativation

negative

1. (law, signalling)No;nay.
   • 1980, Richard Louis Newmann,Siege of Orbitor, page xxiv. 93:

     "Negative Marcel. No IOC. Patient has been drinking heavily, we can give him nothing for pain."

• affirmative

• agentive,gate vein,veganite

negative

1. inflection ofnegativ:
   1. femininesingular
   2. feminineplural

negative

1. inflection ofnegativ:
   1. definiteattributivepositive degree/superlative degree
   2. plural

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negative

1. inflection ofnegativ:
   1. strong/mixednominative/accusativefemininesingular
   2. strongnominative/accusativeplural
   3. weaknominative all-gendersingular
   4. weakaccusativefeminine/neutersingular

• IPA^(key):/ne.ɡaˈti.ve/
• Rhymes:-ive
• Hyphenation:ne‧ga‧tì‧ve

negative f pl

1. feminineplural ofnegativo

negative f

1. plural ofnegativa

• agentive,negatevi,vengiate

• (Classical Latin)IPA^(key):/ne.ɡaːˈtiː.u̯e/,[nɛɡäːˈt̪iːu̯ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA^(key):/ne.ɡaˈti.ve/,[neɡäˈt̪iːve]

negātīve

1. vocativemasculinesingular ofnegātīvus

negative

1. inflection ofnegativ:
   1. definitesingular
   2. plural

negative

1. inflection ofnegativ:
   1. definitesingular
   2. plural

negative

1. inflection ofnegativar:
   1. first/third-personsingularpresentsubjunctive
   2. third-personsingularimperative

negative

1. definitenatural masculinesingular ofnegativ