Negative pregnant

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A negative pregnant (sometimes called a pregnant denial) refers to a denial which implies its affirmative opposite by seeming to deny only a qualification of the allegation and not the allegation itself. For example, "I have never consumed cocaine while on duty" might imply that the person making the statement had consumed cocaine on other occasions, and was only denying that they had done so while on duty.

A negative pregnant which appears in pleadings will often elicit a request for further and better particulars, or an interrogatory.