negatives

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of negative.

   She scanned the negatives and printed the sharpest frames for the show.

   The report lists both the strengths and the negatives of the proposed merger.

   Note

   One spelling serves two words here: this plural noun and the present-tense verb, so the sentence decides which is meant. As a noun it gathers very different things, including a photographer's reversed-tone images, drawbacks weighed against strengths, words of negation and quantities below zero. Each of them forms its plural with a plain -s. A darkroom holds negatives, and a report lists them.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of negative.

   The senate negatives the amendment whenever it threatens local jobs.

   The signed receipt negatives any claim that the payment was never made.

   Note

   The verb behind this form always takes an object. Something negatives a claim, a proposal or an argument by refusing, contradicting, disproving or neutralizing it. It follows he, she, it or a singular subject such as a senate or a signed receipt. Where the noun's sense of veto names the act, this verb performs it, and its object is the thing that ends up refused.

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