negative

Etymology

From Middle English negative, negatif, from Old French negatif, from Latin negativus (“that denies, negative”), from negare (“to deny”); see negate.

adj

1. Not positive nor neutral.
2. (physics) Of electrical charge of an electron and related particles
3. (mathematics) Of a number: less than zero
   1. (weather) Less than zero degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit.
      I was out in negative weather today.
4. (linguistics, logic) Denying a proposition.
5. Damaging; undesirable; unfavourable.
   The high exchange rate will have a negative effect on our profits.
   Customers didn’t like it: feedback was mostly negative.
6. (often used pejoratively) 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.
7. Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of left and right, are reversed.
8. (chemistry) Metalloidal, nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic.
   The nitro group is negative.
9. (New Age jargon, derogatory) 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). 2009, Christopher Johns, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, John Wiley & Sons, page 15
   2011, Joe Vitale, The Key: the missing secret for attracting anything you want, Body, Mind & Spirit, http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hf5qEW9n_fsC&pg=PT109&dq=positive+feelings&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MkX-T8PQCo6KmQXjr4GhBQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=unwanted%20feelings&f=false The threat of negative feelings may seem very real, but they are nothing more than mirages... Allow the unwanted feelings to evaporate and dissolve as the mirages that they are.
   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. 2011, Anne Jones, Healing Negative Energies, Hachette, page 118
10. Characterized by the presence of features which do not support a hypothesis.
11. (slang) 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. quoted in 2013, William I. Johnston, HIV-Negative: How the Uninfected Are Affected by AIDS (page 145)
12. (slang) COVID-19 negative.
13. (hyperbolic) No, not any, zero.
    The hell? I wish I could follow you on that, but it makes negative sense. 7 Sept 02, Jef, “MST3K DVD Collection One”, in rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc (Usenet)

noun

1. Refusal or withholding of assents; prohibition, veto
2. An unfavorable point or characteristic.
3. (law) 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. 1787, Luther Martin, cited in The Constitutional Convention Of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia Of America's Founding (2005), Volume 1, page 391
   The qualified negative of the President differs widely from this absolute negative of the British sovereign; […] 1788, Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, no. 68
   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.
4. (photography) An image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse.
5. (grammar) A word that indicates negation.
6. (mathematics) A negative quantity.
7. (weightlifting) A repetition performed with a weight in which the muscle">muscle begins at maximum contraction and is slowly extended; a movement performed using only the eccentric phase of muscle">muscle movement.
8. The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

verb

1. (transitive) 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. 1887, L. T. Meade, chapter XVIII, in The Palace Beautiful: A Story for Girls
   And being of warm blood he had not the phlegm tacitly to negative any proposition by unresponsive inaction. 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 12, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.
2. (transitive) 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. 1892, Thomas Hardy, chapter XXXIII, in Tess of the d'Urbervilles
3. (transitive) 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. 1882, J. H. Riddell, “Old Mrs Jones”, in The Collected Ghost Stories of Mrs. J. H. Riddell, Dover, published 1977, page 192
4. (transitive) To make ineffective; to neutralize, to negate.
   In the nature of things, much railway capital expenditure on stations and depots was in the immediate vicinity, if not in the heart, of towns, and extensions or remodellings, apart from being extremely costly, may be entirely negatived by the impossibility of securing the necessary land. 1945 March and April, T. F. Cameron, “New Works Procedure”, in Railway Magazine, page 71
   Yet he made his largesse daily more lavish, as he saw the king negativing his efforts by taking care of the orphans and showing his remorse for the murder of his sons by his tenderness towards their little ones. 1959, Flavius Josephus, chapter 5, in G. A. Williamson, transl., The Jewish War, Penguin, published 1970, page 98
   While the diesel-hydraulic system has been failing to live up to its early promise, development in other directions has negatived some of the advantages which prompted its trial. 1963 January, G. Freeman Allen, “Why B.R. are dropping high-power diesel-hydraulics”, in Modern Railways, page 25

intj

1. (law, signalling) No; nay.
   Negative Marcel. No IOC. Patient has been drinking heavily, we can give him nothing for pain. 1980, Richard Louis Newmann, Siege of Orbitor, page xxiv. 93