gainsay
Americanverb (used with object)
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to deny, dispute, or contradict.
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to speak or act against; oppose.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gainsaysimple
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gainsayssimple
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have gainsaidperfect
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has gainsaidperfect
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am gainsayingprogressive
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are gainsayingprogressive
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is gainsayingprogressive
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have been gainsayingperfect progressive
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has been gainsayingperfect progressive
Past
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gainsaidsimple
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had gainsaidperfect
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was gainsayingprogressive
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were gainsayingprogressive
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had been gainsayingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gainsay
First recorded in 1250–1300, gainsay is from the Middle English word gainsaien. See again, say 1
Explanation
Gainsay, a verb, means "contradict" or "speak out against." When you challenge authority, you gainsay, as in teachers don't like it when unruly students gainsay them. Gainsay comes from an Old English word that means "contradict" or "say against," as in, "no one dared gainsay the principal, who is well-known for giving detention to students who so much as frown at him." If you know someone who constantly corrects others, tells them that they're wrong, and says, "That's not true," more than anyone else, you have first-hand experience with the art of the gainsay.
Vocabulary lists containing gainsay
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"Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As an Episcopal priest, I’d be the last person to gainsay the importance of prayer.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 27, 2022
Although the movie doesn’t really position Jackson as a has-been, it also doesn’t forcefully gainsay the notion that the best thing he can do for Ally is get out of her way.
From Slate • Oct. 10, 2018
He’s not sure he has “the emotional fuel” for another presidential run, and no one can gainsay that for a father who has lost a son.
From The Wall Street Journal • Sep. 2, 2015
Why anyone would gainsay efforts as generous as Bilbao and, judging from photographs, the Vuitton museum, or would ambush, with a nasty question, the man who made them beggars comprehension.
From The New Yorker • Oct. 27, 2014
This time they came from the Bible, through which she made desultory progress: gainsay, ravening, hoar.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
