Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • A Middle English form of not.
  • noun In Burma and Siam, a spirit or angel powerful for evil and for punishment; a demon; a genie.
  • noun An abbreviation
  • noun of Natal;
  • noun of national;
  • noun of natural;
  • noun of naturalist.
  • noun A mat.
  • A Middle English contracted form of ne at, not at, or nor at.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb obsolete Not.
  • obsolete Not at; nor at.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A spirit in Burmese mythology, whose cult is followed alongside Buddhism.
  • noun logarithmic unit of information or entropy, based on natural logarithms

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Reduced form of naught.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Abbreviation of natural logarithm.

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Examples

  • Red women have their'n in what I should call the nat'ral way, while white women take 'em innoculated like.

    The Deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • That's what the schoolmasters call nat'ral arithmetic, and 'twill be sartain to beset the feelin's of savages.

    The Deerslayer James Fenimore Cooper 1820

  • Dangerous territory for me - being a tad too much of a pale blue wimp, and too 'nat' sympathetic for one or two of the regulars, who tend towards the 'Right' on the Conservative continuum.

    Archive 2007-07-01 Glyn Davies 2007

  • Dangerous territory for me - being a tad too much of a pale blue wimp, and too 'nat' sympathetic for one or two of the regulars, who tend towards the 'Right' on the Conservative continuum.

    Day out in Newport West Glyn Davies 2007

  • "True, brother, when Peregrine stuck mine into my fist it was like a roaster in the short ribs, low, brother, low -- I was floored, taken aback, an 'nat'rally broached to an' come to a dead halt --"

    Peregrine's Progress Jeffery Farnol 1915

  • "You ain't got no right to close off more'n enough to leave us th 'nat'ral flow unless by agreement," he concluded, and opened the gates.

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • An 'I found Shaver -- 'scuse me, but ut seemed sort o' nat'ral name fer

    A Reversible Santa Claus Meredith Nicholson 1906

  • "You ain't got no right to close off more'n enough to leave us th 'nat'ral flow unless by agreement," he concluded, and opened the gates.

    The Blazed Trail 1902

  • "Ay, but they wanted them, an 'nat'rally the Greeks stuck to the stanes they paid for."

    A Window in Thrums 1898

  • "Arter all," he said, chuckling, "the two things does fit in nicely together an 'nat'ral like --' Igh Jinks an 'a fav'rite gel!"

    The Treasure of Heaven A Romance of Riches Marie Corelli 1889

Comments

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  • In Myanmar, a spirit or demon.

    April 26, 2008

  • Citation on pol.

    March 24, 2012