Negative

From Latin negativus ("that denies, negative"), from negare ("to deny"); see negate.

Full definition of negative

not positive or neutral
(physics) of electrical charge of an electron and related particles from the 18th c.
(mathematics) of number, less than zero
(linguistics, logic) denying a proposition
damaging; undesirable; unfavourable

The high exchange rate will have a negative effect on our profits.Customers didn't like it: feedback was mostly negative.

pessimistic; not tending to see the bright side of things. (Often used pejoratively.)

I don't like to hang around him very much because he can be so negative about his petty problems.

Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of right and left, are reversed.
(chemistry) metalloidal; nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic.The nitro group is negative.
(New Age jargon) (pejorative) bad, unwanted, disagreeable, potentially damaging, to be avoided, unpleasant, difficult, painful; (often precedes 'energy', 'feeling', 'emotion' or 'thought').

2009, Christopher Johns, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner, John Wiley & Sons, p. 15Negative feelings can be worked through and their energy converted into positive energy... In crisis, normal patterns of self-organization fail, resulting in anxiety (negative energy).
2011, Joe Vitale, The Key: the missing secret for attracting anything you want, Body, Mind & Spirit, http://books.google.com.au/books?id=hf5qEW9n_fsC&pg=PT109&dq=positive+feelings&hl=en&sa=X&ei=MkX-T8PQCo6KmQXjr4GhBQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=unwanted%20feelings&f=falseThe threat of negative feelings may seem very real, but they are nothing more than mirages... Allow the unwanted feelings to evaporate and dissolve as the mirages that they are.
2011, Anne Jones, Healing Negative Energies, Hachette, p. 118If you have been badly affected by negative energy a salt bath is wonderful for clearing and cleansing yourself... Salt attracts negative energy and will draw it away from you.

(plural negatives)

1843, Thomas_Carlyle, , book 2, ch. XV, Practical â€” DevotionalGeoffrey Riddell â€¦ made a request of him for timber from his woods towards certain edifices going on at . , a great builder himself, disliked the request; could not however give it a negative.

1787, Luther Martin, cited in The Constitutional Convention Of 1787: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia Of America's Founding (2005), Volume 1, page 391And as to the Constitutionality of laws, that point will come before the Judges in their proper official character. In this character they have a negative on the laws.
1788, Alexander Hamilton,The qualified negative of the President differs widely from this absolute negative of the British sovereign; ...
1983, ,In the convention there does not seem to have been much diversity of opinion on the subject of the propriety of giving to the president a negative on the laws.

(photography) an image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse from the 19th c.
(grammar) a word that indicates negation
(mathematics) a negative quantity
(weightlifting): A rep performed with weight in which the muscle begins at maximum contraction and is slowly extended; a movement performed using only the eccentric phase of muscle movement.
The negative plate of a voltaic or electrolytic cell.

L. T. Meade, The Palace BeautifulPoppy earnestly begged to be allowed to go with Jasmine on the roof, but this the good lady negatived with horror.

J. H. Riddell, Old Mrs JonesAt one time an idea got abroad that the whole tale of her fortune had been a myth; ... but the boastings of various servants who declared they had seen her with â€œrolls on rollsâ€ of banknotes ... negatived the truth of this statement.