Definition of "nope"

"Is my son here, Clarence?" asked Roger Oakley. "Nope. The whistle ain't blowed yet."

1856, Sidney George Fisher, Charles Edward Fisher, Kanzas and the Constitution, page 97

"No," from Tom, ending the word with so decided a pressure of the lips that it sounded like "nope."

1880, R. Foli, Ill weeds, page 319

“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."

1890, Werner's Readings and Recitations, E.S. Werner, page 50

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" […]

c. 1930, The Detroit Educational Bulletin, Detroit (Michigan) Board of Education, page 13

Nope. Don't know as I do.

2006, Charlotte Hudson Ewing, Red Land, AuthorHouse, page 54

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.

1981, Tom Higgins, Practice quick...and swim, read in Dale Earnhardt: Rear View Mirror, Sports Publishing LLC, (2001), p. 32

This cemetery with a haunted playground is a casket full of nope.

2016, Sam Plank, This Cemetery With A Haunted Playground Is A Casket Full Of Nope, Movie Pilot

To Philomell the next, the Linnet we prefer;/And by that warbling bird, the Wood-Lark place we then, /The Reed-sparrow, the Nope, the Red-breast, and the Wren, /The Yellow-pate: which though she hurt the blooming tree, /Yet scarce hath any bird a finer pipe than she.

1613, Michael Drayton, Poly-Olbion, read in The Complete Works of Michael Drayton, Now First Collected. With Introductions and Notes by Richard Hooper. Volume 2. Poly-olbion Elibron Classics (2005) , p. 146

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.

1823, Edward Moor, Suffolk Words and Phrases: or, An attempt to collect the lingual localisms of that county, R. Hunter, p. 255

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.

1836, David Booth, An Analytical Dictionary of the English Language, in which the Words are Explained in the Order of Their Natural Affinity, Independent of Alphabetical Arrangement, page 380

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.).

1882, Abram Smythe Palmer, Folk-etymology: A Dictionary of Verbal Corruptions Or Words Perverted in Form Or Meaning, G. Bell and Sons, page 583

(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.

1823, Francis Grose, Pierce Egan, Grose's Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Francis Grose, page xci

I'll fetch thee a nope.

1829, Joseph Hunter, The Hallamshire Glossary, W. Pickering, page 69

"Nope him on the costard," said Ben Bolter.

1851, Sylvester Judd, Margaret: a tale of the real and the ideal, blight and bloom, Phillips, Sampson, & Co., page 183

The sexton seemed reluctant to resume his old duties, remarking -- "Be I to nope Mr. M on the head if I catches him asleep?"

1891, T F Thiselton Dyer, Church-lore Gleanings, A. D. Innes & co., page 65