nay-say, n.
Also naysay.
[f. nay adv. + say n.]
Refusal, denial.
| 1631 R. H. Arraigum. Whole Creature v. 39 Hee will have no nay say. a 1666 Blair Autobiog. vi. (1848) 84 They would take no naysay. 1721 Ramsay Ode to the Ph— xiii. (1877) II. 144 Nineteen nay says are ha'f a grant. 1762 Sterne Let. to Mrs. Sterne 14 June, Whoever buys the fifth and sixth volumes of Shandy's must have the nay-say of the seventh and eighth. 1816 Scott Bl. Dwarf v, That..depends entirely on the manner in which the nay-says are said. 1857 Sir F. Palgrave Norm. & Eng. II. 44 Not Cromwell's faltering nay-say, nor Cæsar's affected disdain. |
So nay-say v., to refuse (one). dial. and arch.
More freq. in dial. forms na- or nae-say.
| 1773 Fergusson Election ix. Poet. Wks. (1800) 138 The foul ane durst him na-say. a 1800 James Hadley vii. in Child Ballads IV. 371/1 If it should be my hole estate, Naesaid, naesaid, it shall not be. 1864 W. D. Latto Tam. Bodkin xv, The evidence..was ower strong an' conclusive to be nae said. 1890 Morris Glittering Plain xix, He naysaid them because he was fain of his work. |