NEGATIVE

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 Ant: affirmative. If thou wilt confess, Or else be impudently negative. Shak. Denying me any power of a negative voice. Eikon Basilike. Something between an affirmative bow and a negative shake. Dickens.

Not positive; without affirmative statement or demonstration; indirect; consisting in the absence of something; privative; as, a negative argument; a negative morality; negative criticism. There in another way of denying Christ, ... which is negative, when we do not acknowledge and confess him. South.

Asserting absence of connection between a subject and a predicate; as, a negative proposition.

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.

Metalloidal; nonmetallic; -- contracted with positive or basic; as, the nitro group is negative.

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. South.

A word used in denial or refusal; as, not, no.

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. Milton.

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.

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.

The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell. Negative pregnant (Law), a negation which implies an affirmation.

To prove unreal or intrue; to disprove. The omission or infrequency of such recitals does not negative the existence of miracles. Paley.

To reject by vote; to refuse to enact or sanction; as, the Senate negatived the bill.

To neutralize the force of; to counteract.