negative

adjective

1 the petition produced a negative reply from the Home Office:

saying ‘no’, in the negative, rejecting, refusing;

dissenting, dissentient, contrary, anti-, opposing, opposed;

denying;

formal gainsaying;

rare dissentious.

▷antonyms positive, affirmative.

2 he was criticized for being negative:

pessimistic, defeatist, gloomy, gloom-ridden, cynical, bleak, fatalistic, dismissive, anti, antipathetic, uncooperative, obstructive;

unenthusiastic, cool, cold, uninterested, unresponsive, apathetic.

▷antonyms positive, optimistic, constructive, enthusiastic.

3 the crisis had an immediate and negative effect on the economy:

harmful, bad, adverse, damaging, detrimental, unfortunate, unfavorable, disadvantageous.

▷antonyms favorable, good.

noun

he murmured something sufficiently incomprehensible for her to take it as a negative:

no, refusal, rejection, veto;

dissension, contradiction;

denial.

verb

1 the bill was negatived on the second reading by 130 votes to 129:

reject, turn down, say ‘no’ to, refuse, veto, squash;

informal give the thumbs down to, give the red light to.

▷antonyms accept, ratify, pass.

2 the insurer's main arguments were negatived by Lawrence:

disprove, show/prove to be false, give the lie to, belie, invalidate, call into question, refute, rebut, discredit, explode;

contradict, deny, negate;

formal gainsay.

▷antonyms prove, substantiate.

3 rare would-be vendors inevitably raise selling prices to negative the effect of the tax:

cancel out, neutralize, counteract, nullify, negate, render ineffective;

offset, balance, counterbalance, balance out, equalize.