negative

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Not positive or neutral

   Not positive or neutral; bad; undesirable; unfavourable.

   • The high exchange rate will have a negative effect on our profits.
   • Customers didn’t like it: feedback was mostly negative.
2. 2

   Of a number

   Of a number: less than zero.

3. 3

   Of a test result

   Of a test result: not positive, not detected.

   • negative detection of.
4. ›+ 24 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Of electrical charge of an electron and related particles

   2. 5

      Denying a proposition

      Denying a proposition; negating a concept.

   3. 6

      Pessimistic

      Pessimistic; not tending to see the bright side of things.

      • I don’t like to hang around him very much because he can be so negative about his petty problems.
   4. 7

      Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the…

      Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of left and right, are reversed.

   5. 8

      Metalloidal, nonmetallic

      Metalloidal, nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic.

      • The nitro group is negative.
   6. 9

      Often preceded by emotion, energy, feeling, or thought

      Often preceded by emotion, energy, feeling, or thought: to be avoided, bad, difficult, disagreeable, painful, potentially damaging, unpleasant, unwanted.

      • 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).
      • If you have been badly affected by negative energy a salt bath is wonderful for clearing and cleansing yourself... Salt attracts negative energy and will draw it away from you.
   7. 10

      Characterized by the presence of features which do not support a hypothesis.

   8. 11

      HIV negative.

      • We certainly told him at that time that I was negative. We talked about transmission. We told him we don't do anything that would cause me to become positive.
   9. 12

      COVID-19 negative.

   10. 13

       No, not any, zero.

       • The negative contact we get inside here [prison] is enough to make you even more bitter and further alienated from society and ourselves.
       • The hell? I wish I could follow you on that, but it makes negative sense.
   11. 14

       Refusal or withholding of assents

       Refusal or withholding of assents; prohibition, veto

       • Geoffrey Riddell Bishop of Ely […] made a request of him for timber from his woods towards certain edifices going on at Glemsford. The Abbot, a great builder himself, disliked the request; could not however give it a negative.
   12. 15

       An unfavorable point or characteristic.

   13. 16

       A right of veto.

       • And as to the Constitutionality of laws, that point will come before the Judges in their proper official character. In this character they have a negative on the laws.
       • The qualified negative of the President differs widely from this absolute negative 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 a negative on the laws.
   14. 17

       An image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse.

   15. 18

       A word that indicates negation.

       • "Why, she is one of those persons whom negatives seem invented to describe—I doubt whether she is worth one single bad quality."
   16. 19

       A negative quantity.

   17. 20

       A repetition performed with a weight in which the muscle begins at maximum contraction…

       A repetition performed with a weight in which the muscle begins at maximum contraction and is slowly extended; a movement performed using only the eccentric phase of muscle movement.

   18. 21

       The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

   19. 22

       A statement that something didn’t happen or doesn’t exist.

       • You can’t prove a negative.
   20. 23

       To refuse

       To refuse; to veto.

       • Poppy earnestly begged to be allowed to go with Jasmine on the roof, but this the good lady negatived with horror.
       • And being of warm blood he had not the phlegm tacitly to negative any proposition by unresponsive inaction.
   21. 24

       To contradict.

       • "A comely maid, that," said the other. "True, comely enough. But unless I make a great mistake—" And he negatived the remainder of the definition forthwith.
   22. 25

       To disprove.

       • 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.
       • "However, the fact that they need crystals negatives that idea...we must seek a material explanation."
   23. 26

       To make ineffective

       To make ineffective; to neutralize; to negate.

       • He was coatless and his thumbs were hooked negligently in a leather belt, thereby negativing a tendency to balance himself on an inclined plane backwards.
   24. 27

       No

       No; nay.

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

The neighborhood

• antonympositive
• antonymaffirmative
• neighbornegate
• neighbornegation
• neighbornegativism
• neighbornegatory