Commissioners arch their eyebrows, with negatory sniff: who is this young gentleman with more wit than we all?
Dane made a negatory gesture, but Ormond anticipated his answer.
A quiet smile with a negatory shake of the head was the only answer.
For example, he should never be content with mere aggressive and negatory criticism of the page before him.
"expressing negation," 1570s, from Middle French negatoire or directly from Medieval Latin negatorius "negative," from Latin negatus, past participle of negare "deny, say no, to refuse" (see deny). In the sense "no" it is U.S. Air Force slang from the early 1950s.
negation
No; nix, nope: Mrs. Shrub sternly took Shrub's arm. ''Were you really going to ruin his daughter's wedding?'' The Shrub said, ''Negatory''
[1950s+ Air Force; an adjective sense, fr French ne´gatoire, is found by 1580; the modern sense was popularized by the citizens band phenomenon of the 1970s]
