gainstay

gainstay

English

Etymology

From gain- +‎ stay (“to stand”). Compare gainstand.

Verb

gainstay (third-person singular simple present gainstays, present participle gainstaying, simple past and past participle gainstayed)

1. (transitive) To stand against or in opposition to; resist; oppose.
   • 1983, Bill McAdoo, Pre-Civil War Black Nationalism:

     Among the diversity of opinions that are entertained in regard to physical resistance, there are but a few found to gainstay that stern delcaration.

   • 1998, Randall Roorda, Dramas of solitude: narratives of retreat in American nature writing:

     But this stance informs the way I regard the student essays I surveyed earlier, my belief that however challenging I may be in provoking interpretations of Thoreau, I ought not to gainstay my students' own Thoreauvian productions, ...

   • 2004, William Hill, Wizard Sword:

     " [...] Then I dare not gainstay you, Devin. I just wish to bring out the best in such a noble son of Zenn-Ra."

2. (transitive) To deny (the right to); deprive (of).
   • 1926, Theosophical Society (Madras, India), The Theosophist:

     [...] it was intended to be, a living fire of force in the world that cannot be gainstayed and which no storms can shake.

   • 1998, Nancy Ann Watanabe, Love eclipsed: Joyce Carol Oates's Faustian moral vision:

     An illiterate woman, Mai-ch'en's wife is not gainstayed the benefit of the doubt.

Synonyms

• gainstand
• withset
• withsit