Definition: negative
Source: WordNet (r) 1.7
negative
adj 1: characterized by or displaying negation or denial or
opposition or resistance; having no positive features;
"a negative outlook on life"; "a colorless negative
personality"; "a negative evaluation"; "a negative
reaction to an advertising campaign" [ant: neutral,
positive]
2: reckoned in a direction opposite to that regarded as
positive
3: having a negative electric charge; "electrons are negative"
[syn: electronegative] [ant: neutral, positive]
4: expressing or consisting of a negation or refusal or denial
[ant: affirmative]
5: having the quality of something harmful or unpleasant; "ran
a negative campaign"; "delinquents retarded by their
negative outlook on life"
6: (medicine) not indicating the presence of microorganisms or
disease or a specific condition; "the HIV test was
negative" [syn: disconfirming] [ant: positive]
7: (mathematics) less than zero; "a negative number"
8: designed or tending to discredit, especially without
positive or helpful suggestions; "negative criticism"
[syn: damaging]
9: involving disadvantage or harm; "minus (or negative)
factors" [syn: minus]
n 1: a reply of denial; "he answered in the negative" [ant: affirmative]
2: a piece of photographic film showing an image with black and
white tones reversed
v : vote against; refuse to endorse; refuse to assent [syn: veto,
blackball]
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Reversed \Re*versed"\, a.
1. Turned side for side, or end for end; changed to the
contrary; specifically (Bot. & Zo["o]l.), sinistrorse or
sinistral; as, a reversed, or sinistral, spiral or shell.
2. (Law) Annulled and the contrary substituted; as, a
reversed judgment or decree.
Reversed positive or negative (Photog.), a picture
corresponding with the original in light and shade, but
reversed as to right and left. --Abney.
Negative \Neg"a*tive\, a. [F. n['e]gatif, L. negativus, fr. negare to deny. See Negation.] 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 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. 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. (Logic) Asserting absence of connection between a subject and a predicate; as, a negative proposition. 4. (Photog.) 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. (Chem.) Metalloidal; nonmetallic; -- contracted with positive or basic; as, the nitro group is negative. Note: This word, derived from electro-negative, is now commonly used in a more general sense, when acidiferous is the intended signification. Negative crystal. (a) A cavity in a mineral mass, having the form of a crystal. (b) A crystal which has the power of negative double refraction. See refraction. negative electricity (Elec.), the kind of electricity which is developed upon resin or ebonite when rubbed, or which appears at that pole of a voltaic battery which is connected with the plate most attacked by the exciting liquid; -- formerly called resinous electricity. Opposed to positive electricity. Formerly, according to Franklin's theory of a single electric fluid, negative electricity was supposed to be electricity in a degree below saturation, or the natural amount for a given body. see Electricity. Negative eyepiece. (Opt.) see under Eyepiece. Negative quantity (Alg.), a quantity preceded by the negative sign, or which stands in the relation indicated by this sign to some other quantity. See Negative sign (below). Negative rotation, right-handed rotation. See Right-handed, 3. Negative sign, the sign -, or minus (opposed in signification to +, or plus), indicating that the quantity to which it is prefixed is to be subtracted from the preceding quantity, or is to be reckoned from zero or cipher in the opposite direction to that of quanties having the sign plus either expressed or understood; thus, in a - b, b is to be substracted from a, or regarded as opposite to it in value; and -10[deg] on a thermometer means 10[deg] below the zero of the scale.
Negative \Neg"a*tive\, n. [Cf. F. n['e]gative.]
1. 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.
This is a known rule in divinity, that there is no
command that runs in negatives but couches under it
a positive duty. --South.
2. A word used in denial or refusal; as, not, no.
Note: In Old England two or more negatives were often joined
together for the sake of emphasis, whereas now such
expressions are considered ungrammatical, being chiefly
heard in iliterate speech. A double negative is now
sometimes used as nearly or quite equivalent to an
affirmative.
No wine ne drank she, neither white nor red.
--Chaucer.
These eyes that never did nor never shall So much
as frown on you. --Shak.
3. The refusal or withholding of assents; veto.
If a kind without his kingdom be, in a civil sense,
nothing, then . . . his negative is as good as
nothing. --Milton.
4. 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.
5. (Photog.) 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.
Note: A negative is chiefly used for producing photographs by
means of the sun's light passing through it and acting
upon sensitized paper, thus producing on the paper a
positive picture.
Negative \Neg"a*tive\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Negatived; p. pr. & vb. n. Negativing.] 1. To prove unreal or intrue; to disprove. The omission or infrequency of such recitals does not negative the existence of miracles. --Paley. 2. To reject by vote; to refuse to enact or sanction; as, the Senate negatived the bill. 3. To neutralize the force of; to counteract.
Demonstration \Dem`on*stra"tion\, n. [L. demonstratio: cf. F.
d['e]monstration.]
1. The act of demonstrating; an exhibition; proof;
especially, proof beyond the possibility of doubt;
indubitable evidence, to the senses or reason.
Those intervening ideas which serve to show the
agreement of any two others are called ``proofs;''
and where agreement or disagreement is by this means
plainly and clearly perceived, it is called
demonstration. --Locke.
2. An expression, as of the feelings, by outward signs; a
manifestation; a show.
Did your letters pierce the queen to any
demonstration of grief? --Shak.
Loyal demonstrations toward the prince. --Prescott.
3. (Anat.) The exhibition and explanation of a dissection or
other anatomical preparation.
4. (Mil.) a decisive exhibition of force, or a movement
indicating an attack.
5. (Logic) The act of proving by the syllogistic process, or
the proof itself.
6. (Math.) A course of reasoning showing that a certain
result is a necessary consequence of assumed premises; --
these premises being definitions, axioms, and previously
established propositions.
Direct, or Positive, demonstration (Logic & Math.), one
in which the correct conclusion is the immediate sequence
of reasoning from axiomatic or established premises; --
opposed to
Indirect, or Negative, demonstration (called also
reductio ad absurdum), in which the correct conclusion
is an inference from the demonstration that any other
hypothesis must be incorrect.
Eyepiece \Eye"piece`\, n. (Opt.) The lens, or combination of lenses, at the eye end of a telescope or other optical instrument, through which the image formed by the mirror or object glass is viewed. Collimating eyepiece. See under Collimate. Negative, or Huyghenian, eyepiece, an eyepiece consisting of two plano-convex lenses with their curved surfaces turned toward the object glass, and separated from each other by about half the sum of their focal distances, the image viewed by the eye being formed between the two lenses. it was devised by Huyghens, who applied it to the telescope. Campani applied it to the microscope, whence it is sometimes called Campani's eyepiece. Positive eyepiece, an eyepiece consisting of two plano-convex lenses placed with their curved surfaces toward each other, and separated by a distance somewhat less than the focal distance of the one nearest eye, the image of the object viewed being beyond both lenses; -- called also, from the name of the inventor, Ramsden's eyepiece. terrestrial, or Erecting eyepiece, an eyepiece used in telescopes for viewing terrestrial objects, consisting of three, or usually four, lenses, so arranged as to present the image of the object viewed in an erect position.
