[not] 
| 1. | (used to express negation, denial, refusal, or prohibition): You must not do that. It's not far from here. |
| 2. | U.S. Slang. (used jocularly as a postpositive interjection to indicate that a previous statement is untrue): That's a lovely dress. Not! |
| var. of noto- before a vowel. |
[not] | a Boolean operator that returns a positive result if its operand is negative and a negative result if its operand is positive. |
| a combining form meaning “the back,” used in the formation of compound words: notochord. |
| not (nŏt) adv. In no way; to no degree. Used to express negation, denial, refusal, or prohibition: I will not go. You may not have any. [Middle English, alteration of naught, nought; see naught.] Usage Note: Care should be taken with the placement of not and other negatives in a sentence in order to avoid ambiguity. All elephants are not friendly could be taken to mean either "All elephants are unfriendly" or "Not all elephants are friendly." Similarly, the sentence Kim didn't sleep until noon could mean either "Kim went to sleep at noon" or "Kim got up before noon." · In formal writing, each part of the not only . . . but also construction should be followed with an element of the same grammatical type. Instead of She not only bought a new car but also a new lawnmower, one should write She bought not only a new car but also a new lawnmower; in the second version, both not only and but also are followed by noun phrases. Omitting the also tends to intensify the second part of the construction so that it no longer functions merely as a supplement to the first part: She is not only smart but brilliant. He not only wanted the diamond but wanted it desperately. See Usage Note at only. |
| NOT (nŏt) n. A logical operator that returns a false value if the operand is true and a true value if the operand is false. |
NOT logic
The Boolean function which is true only if its input is false. Its truth table is:
A | NOT A --+---------- F | T T | F
(1996-11-04)
not
In addition to the idioms beginning with not, also see all that glitters is not gold; (not) all there; (not) at all; believe it or not; caught dead, not be; (not a) Chinaman's chance; coming or going, not know if; do as I say (not as I do); game is not worth the candle; heart (not) in it; hold one's breath, not; (not) in the least; (not) in the mood; it's (not) your funeral; last but not least; like as not; living soul, not a; mince matters, not to; more often than not; (not) move a muscle; no problem (not to worry); (not to) sneeze at; (not) take no for an answer; (not) the half of it; (not) turn a hair; two wrongs do not make a right; waste not, want not; whether or not; without a (not a) leg to stand on; won't (will not) hear of. For verbal phrases also see under can't; couldn't; wouldn't.
