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An adjective suffix signifying relating or belonging to, of the nature of, tending to; as affirmative, active, conclusive, corrective, diminutive.

in private station, as distinguished from one holding a public office. [Obs.] St. Austin affirmed that the plain places of Scripture are sufficient to all laics, and all idiots or private persons. Jer. Taylor.

ns against; to gainsay; to oppose. The truth hereof I will net rashly pugn, or overboldly affirm. Peacham.

ould leave off that indefinite way of vouching, "the chymists say this," or "the chymists affirm that." Boyle. The time of this last is left indefinite. Dryden.

cative mood (Gram.), that mood or form of the verb which indicates, that is, which simply affirms or denies or inquires; as, he writes; he is not writing; has the mail arrived

state in which we have no grief or pain; so that the word, as we now employ it, seems to affirm that indulgence in sloth and ease is that which would constitute for us the absence of all pain. Trench.

tablished in respect to a part, individual, or species, may, on the ground of analogy, be affirmed or received of the whole to which it belongs. This last is the inductive method of Bacon. It ascends from the parts to the whole, and forms, from the general analogy of nature, or special presumptions in the case, conclus…

A point in debate or controversy on which the parties take affirmative and negative positions; a presentation of alternatives between which to choose or decide.

and discrimination is acquired. See 2. A judgment is the mental act by which one thing is affirmed or denied of another. Sir W. Hamilton. The power by which we are enabled to perceive what is true or false, probable or improbable, is called by logicians the faculty of judgment. Stewart.

in chancery, showing when, before whom, and (in English practice), where, it was sworn or affirmed. Wharton. Bouvier.

e highest degree of the speculative faculties, consists in the perception of the truth of affirmative or negative propositions. Locke.

To permit; to allow; to suffer; -- either affirmatively, by positive act, or negatively, by neglecting to restrain or prevent.

To affirm; to support or defend by argument. It is hard to maintain the truth, but much harder to be maintained by it. South.

n that something is not, or has not been, or will not be; denial; -- the opposite of Ant: affirmation. Our assertions and negations should be yea and nay. Rogers.

r 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.

r than (1) Christian Science and (2) hypnotism or psychotherapy. Its central principle is affirmative thought, or suggestion, employed with the conviction that man produces changes in his health, his finances, and his life by the adoption of a favorable mental attitude. AS a therapeutic doctrine it stands for silent an…

A plea of a defendant that he did not hold the land, as affirmed.

negative proposition, following neither, or not, in the first member or clause (as or in affirmative propositions follows either). Nor is also used sometimes in the first member for neither, and sometimes the neither is omitted and implied by the use of nor. Provide neither gold nor silver, nor brass, in your purses,…

A solemn affirmation or declaration, made with a reverent appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed. "I have an oath in heaven" Shak. An oath of secrecy for the concealing of those [inventions] which we think fit to keep secret. Bacon.

The act of immediate inference, by which we deny the opposite of anything which has been affirmed; as, all men are mortal; then, by obversion, no men are immortal. This is also described as "immediate inference by privative conception." Bain.