Not positive or neutral; bad; undesirable; unfavourable.
negative — Definition and meaning
• Of a number: less than zero.
• Less than zero degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit.
• Of a test result: not positive, not detected.
• Of electrical charge of an electron and related particles .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller}
• Denying a proposition; negating a concept.
• Pessimistic; not tending to see the bright side of things.
• Of or relating to a photographic image in which the colours of the original, and the relations of left and right, are reversed.
• Metalloidal, nonmetallic; contrasted with positive or basic.
• Often preceded by emotion, energy, feeling, or thought: to be avoided, bad, difficult, disagreeable, painful, potentially damaging, unpleasant, unwanted.
• Characterized by the presence of features which do not support a hypothesis.
• HIV negative.
• COVID-19 negative.
• No, not any, zero.
(Noun) Refusal or withholding of assents; prohibition, veto
• An unfavorable point or characteristic.
• A right of veto.
• An image in which dark areas represent light ones, and the converse.
• A word that indicates negation.
• A negative quantity.
• A repetition performed with a 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.
• A statement that something didn’t happen or doesn’t exist.
(Verb) To refuse; to veto.
• To contradict.
• To disprove.
• To make ineffective; to neutralize; to negate.
(Interjection) No; nay.
The importance of negative
negative appears in U.S. legal practice across multiple practice areas. Knowing what it means — and when it applies — can determine the outcome of motions, filings, and negotiations. For non-lawyers, the value of looking up a precise definition is that legal terms often carry meanings that differ from everyday usage; relying on the common meaning can lead to costly missteps.
How negative is applied
In practice, negative is invoked when parties, judges, or attorneys need to identify the legal status of an issue, the rights of those involved, or the procedural step required next. The definition shown above is sourced from Wiktionary , which is widely cited in U.S. legal practice. Because U.S. law is jurisdictionally layered — federal, state, and sometimes local — the precise application of the term can vary by court, so check the controlling authority for your specific case.