negative Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a reply of denial
    • he answered in the negative
  2. noun a piece of photographic film showing an image with light and shade or colors reversed
  3. verb vote against; refuse to endorse; refuse to assent
    veto; blackball.
    • The President vetoed the bill
  4. adjective characterized by or displaying negation or denial or opposition or resistance; having no positive features
    • a negative outlook on life
    • a colorless negative personality
    • a negative evaluation
    • a negative reaction to an advertising campaign
  5. adjective expressing or consisting of a negation or refusal or denial
  6. adjective satellite having the quality of something harmful or unpleasant
    • ran a negative campaign
    • delinquents retarded by their negative outlook on life
  7. adjective not indicating the presence of microorganisms or disease or a specific condition
    disconfirming.
    • the HIV test was negative
  8. adjective reckoned in a direction opposite to that regarded as positive
    • negative interest rates
  9. adjective satellite less than zero
    • a negative number
  10. adjective satellite designed or tending to discredit, especially without positive or helpful suggestions
    damaging.
    • negative criticism
  11. adjective satellite having a negative charge
    electronegative; negatively charged.
    • electrons are negative
  12. adjective satellite involving disadvantage or harm
    minus.
    • minus (or negative) factors

WordNet

Neg"a*tive adjective
Etymology
F. négatif, L. negativus, fr. negare to deny. See Negation.
Definitions
  1. 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 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.
  2. 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.
  3. (Logic) Asserting absence of connection between a subject and a predicate; as, a negative proposition.
  4. (Photog.) 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.
  5. (Chem.) Metalloidal; nonmetallic; -- contracted with positive or basic; as, the nitro group is negative. ✍ This word, derived from electro-negative, is now commonly used in a more general sense, when acidiferous is the intended signification.
Neg"a*tive noun
Etymology
Cf. F. négative.
Definitions
  1. 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.
  2. A word used in denial or refusal; as, not, no. ✍ In Old England two or more negatives were often joined together for the sake of emphasis, whereas now such expressions are considered ungrammatical, being chiefly heard in iliterate speech. A double negative is now sometimes used as nearly or quite equivalent to an affirmative.
    No wine ne drank she, neither white nor red. Chaucer.
    These eyes that never did nor never shall So much as frown on you. Shak.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. (Photog.) 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. ✍ A negative is chiefly used for producing photographs by means of the sun's light passing through it and acting upon sensitized paper, thus producing on the paper a positive picture. now, not sun's light but artificial light is used
  6. (Elect.) The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.
Neg"a*tive transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Negatived ; present participle & verbal noun Negativing
Definitions
  1. To prove unreal or intrue; to disprove.
    The omission or infrequency of such recitals does not negative the existence of miracles. Paley.
  2. To reject by vote; to refuse to enact or sanction; as, the Senate negatived the bill.
  3. To neutralize the force of; to counteract.

Webster 1913