nope
particlenounnounnounverbcommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//nəʊp//
- United States//noʊp//
- United States/[noʊp̚]/
- //nəʊp//
No.
particle
- 1
informalNo.
"Is my son here, Clarence?" asked Roger Oakley. "Nope. The whistle ain't blowed yet."
"No," from Tom, ending the word with so decided a pressure of the lips that it sounded like "nope."
“Aunt Kat? And was Aunt Kat your only relation? Have you no father nor mother?” “Nope. Never had none ‘cept Aunt Kat. Her hull name was Katrina. She wuz Dutch she wuz."
1: I will not dishonour my country's speech by leaving off the last syllables of words, 2: I will say a good American "yes" and "no" in place of an Indian grunt "um-hum" and "nup-um" or a foreign "ya" or "yeh" and "nope"[…]
Etymology
Representing no pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end. Luick instead claims it represents a realisation of no with final [ʔ], with a purported reduction of /p/ to [ʔ] before syllabic liquids providing a model for the spelling of [ʔ] as -pe, but it is more parsimonious to assume that the -pe directly represents attested realisations with [p̚]. Compare yep, welp, ope, and yup.
noun
- 1
informalA negative reply, no.
I'll take that as a nope, then.
By one reporter's count, questions about the change elicited seven shakes of the head indicating no comment, five "yeps" and three "nopes" from Earnhardt.
- 2
slangAn intensely undesirable thing, such as a circumstance or an animal, eliciting immediate repulsion without possibility of further consideration.
This cemetery with a haunted playground is a casket full of nope.
noun
- 1
archaicA bullfinch.
I may note that olp, if pronounced ope, as it sometimes is, may be the origin of nope; an ope, and a nope, differ as little as possible.
In Natural History, 'An Eye of Pheasants' was also 'A Nye of Pheasants', and even the human Eye was written a Nye. The Bulfinch was either a Nope, or an Ope ; the common Lizard, or Eft (Old English Evet) is also the Newt; the Water-Eft is the Water-Newt ; and the Saxon nedder, a serpent (probably allied to Nether, as crawling on the ground) has been transformed into an Adder.
Nope, an old name for the bullfinch used by Drayton (Wright), is a corrupt form for an ope, otherwise spelt aupe, olp, or alpe (Prompt.Parv.).
Etymology
Probably a rebracketing of an ope (see 1823 quote), from alp (“bullfinch”).
noun
- 1
A blow to the head.
(in an example of use of crackmans) The cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw.
I'll fetch thee a nope.
Etymology
Possibly influenced by nape and knap.
verb
- 1
archaicTo hit someone on the head.
"Nope him on the costard," said Ben Bolter.
The sexton seemed reluctant to resume his old duties, remarking -- "Be I to nope Mr. M on the head if I catches him asleep?"
Forms
- plural
- nopes
- past tense
- noped
- past participle
- noped
- present participle
- noping
- third person singular
- nopes