▪ I. nayword1
(ˈneɪwɜːd)
Also 7 ay-.
[Of obscure formation; there is no obvious connexion with either nay or ay.]
1. A watchword or catchword. rare.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. ii. ii. 131 In any case haue a nay⁓word, that you may know one anothers minde. Ibid. v. ii. 5 We haue a nay-word, how to know one another. I come to her in white, and cry Mum; she cries Budget. 1828 A. E. Bray Protestant viii. (1884) 73 A rosary. A priest's treasury—his fortune, his nayword, his mask, through the mumming of this goodly farce, called the world. 1837 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) IV. 285 A persuasion that the first of the sounds ‘Victoria Regina’ was the proper nay-word for gentlemen to know when to take off their hats. |
2. A byword, a proverb. ? Obs.
| 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iii. 146 If I do not gull him into an ayword, and make him a common recreation. 1664 Cotton Scarron. 14 And with a Gibing kind of Nayword, Quoth he [etc.]. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew s.v. Taudry, It grew into a Nay-word, upon any thing very Gawdy. 1777 Gentl. Mag. XLVII. 321 A Nayword..is a common expression for a by-word and is probably a crasis of an Aye-word. |
▪ II. nayword2 rare—1.
[f. nay adv.1]
Refusal.
| 1898 Blackw. Mag. Apr. 565 There will be no hasty nay⁓word from me. |