Definition of negative

• a. - 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.
• a. - Not positive; without affirmative statement or demonstration; indirect; consisting in the absence of something; privative; as, a negative argument; a negative morality; negative criticism.
• a. - Asserting absence of connection between a subject and a predicate; as, a negative proposition.
• a. - 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.
• a. - Metalloidal; nonmetallic; -- contracted with positive or basic; as, the nitro group is negative.
• n. - 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.
• n. - A word used in denial or refusal; as, not, no.
• n. - The refusal or withholding of assents; veto.
• n. - 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.
• n. - 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.
• n. - The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.
• v. t. - To prove unreal or intrue; to disprove.
• v. t. - To reject by vote; to refuse to enact or sanction; as, the Senate negatived the bill.
• v. t. - To neutralize the force of; to counteract.