denay

English

Noun

denay (plural denays)

1. (obsolete) denial; refusal
   • a. 1542, Thomas Wyatt, “Forget not yet the tryde entent” in the Devonshire Manuscript, folio 54 verso:

     Forget not yet the gret aſſays
     the cruell wrong the ſkornfull ways
     the paynfull pacyence in denays […]

   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

     Duke Orsino: My love can give no place, bide no denay.

Verb

denay (third-person singular simple present denays, present participle denaying, simple past and past participle denayed)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To deny, refuse.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 15:

     That with great rage he stoutly doth denay.

   • 1600, Edward Fairfax, The Jerusalem Delivered of Tasso, XII, xxvii:

     Preserve this babe, whose mother must denay / To nourish it, preserve this harmless child.

Anagrams

• Adney, Ayden, Dayne, dynae, nayed