minus sign

To unearth what you need, put a minus sign in front of any terms you want excluded from your search.

In column 10 where the dates are given, a minus sign indicates the past and a plus sign the future.

For weeks after that, though, I carried four hundred on the books with a minus sign in front.

The minus sign prefixed to a reading means that the variable was placed on the side of the fixed line.

When the temperature has fallen, put a minus sign (-) before the number of degrees of fall.

It was like a bracket preceded by a minus sign, which affected all that was within the bracket.