gainsay
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents |
English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Middle English gainsayen, ȝeinseggen (“to say against, say in opposition to”), equivalent to gain- + say.
Pronunciation [edit]
- Rhymes: -eɪ
Verb [edit]
gainsay (third-person singular simple present gainsays, present participle gainsaying, simple past and past participle gainsaid)
- To contradict; to deny, refute; to controvert; to dispute; to forbid.
- 1840, Abel Upshur, A Brief Enquiry into the Nature and Character of our Federal Government, Campbell, page 84:
- The supreme court, therefore, may assume jurisdiction over subjects and between parties, not allowed by the constitution, and there is no power in the federal government to gainsay it.
- 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles:
- Know then that in the time of the Great Rebellion (the history of which by the learned Lord Clarendon I most earnestly commend to your attention) this Manor of Baskerville was held by Hugo of that name, nor can it be gainsaid that he was a most wild, profane, and godless man.
- 2012 July 7, “Griffith acted, and lived, by Golden Rule”, The Post and Courier, Charleston, Evening Post Publishing, page 5, Features:
- And there was something childlike about Griffith, too, even in his Matlock days, as a deceptively sharp 'simple country lawyer,' a big-kid boyishness that did not mask his intelligence or gainsay his authority.
- 1840, Abel Upshur, A Brief Enquiry into the Nature and Character of our Federal Government, Campbell, page 84:
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to deny; to contradict
|
|
