GAINSAY (gainsaid)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: gainsaid   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gainsay mean? 

• GAINSAY (verb)
  The verb GAINSAY has 1 sense:

1. take exception to

  Familiarity information: GAINSAY used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GAINSAY (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they gainsay    ... he / she / it gainsays   
Past simple: gainsaid   
Past participle: gainsaid   
-ing form: gainsaying   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take exception to

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

challenge; dispute; gainsay

Context example:

She challenged his claims

Hypernyms (to "gainsay" is one way to...):

contend; contest; repugn (to make the subject of dispute, contention, or litigation)

"Gainsay" entails doing...:

call into question; oppugn; question (challenge the accuracy, probity, or propriety of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "gainsay"):

call (challenge the sincerity or truthfulness of)

call (challenge (somebody) to make good on a statement; charge with or censure for an offense)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

The one was long and thin, with melancholy features, while the other was fat and sleek, with a loud voice and the air of a man who is not to be gainsaid.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I’m sorry to gainsay you, lad, but there are reasons why I had rather you stayed down here with your aunt.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“By the three kings!” cried the Brabanter, “this time at least there is no gainsaying which is the better weapon, or which the truer hand that held it. You have missed the shield, Englishman.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Now woe worth me!” she cried, “and ill fall on Michael Easover of Romsey! for I told him that the pin was loose, and yet he must needs gainsay me, like the foolish daffe that he is.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)