wouldn't meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

wouldn't

verb

UK, US /ˈwʊdn̩t/ · US [wʊdⁿn̩t]

Etymology Contraction of would + not, equivalent to would + -n't.

would not (negative auxiliary)

Wouldn't you often have supper on the terrace on Sundays?
She was so mad she wouldn't speak to me for quite a spell, but at last I coaxed her into going up to Miss Emmeline's room and fetching down a tintype of the missing Deacon man.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VI, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

Coordinate terms: can't, couldn't, mayn't, mightn't, oughtn't, shan't, shouldn't, won't