NEGATIVE

Definitions

1. 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 Ant: 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. 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. 3. Asserting absence of connection between a subject and a predicate; as, a negative proposition.
4. 4. 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. 5. Metalloidal; nonmetallic; -- contracted with positive or basic; as, the nitro group is negative.