nay [neɪ]
sentence substitute
a word for no1: archaic or dialectal except in voting by voice
n
a. a person who votes in the negative
b. a negative vote
adv
(sentence modifier) Archaic an emphatic form of no1 Compare aye1
[from Old Norse nei, from ne not + ei ever, ay1]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 6th Edition 2003.
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1979, 1986
© HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
"Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening."
(Oliver Wendell Holmes)
Never Give All The Heart
Never give all the heart, for love
Will hardly seem worth thinking of
To passionate women if it seem
Certain, and they never dream
That it fades out from kiss to kiss;
For everything that's lovely is
But a brief, dreamy. Kind delight.
O never give the heart outright,
For they, for all smooth lips can say,
Have given their hearts up to the play.
And who could play it well enough
If deaf and dumb and blind with love?
He that made this knows all the cost,
For he gave all his heart and lost.
William Butler Yeats
