Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an emphatic rejection.

[1856		Knickerbocker (N.Y.) xlvii May 544: Examiner: Has it effected that object? Student: No, Sir-r-r! I don’t think it has].
1863		‘Edmund Kirke’ Life in Dixie’s Land 59: No, sar! No darkies eats with us. Hope you don’t reckon yerself no better than a good-for-nothin’, no-account nigger!
1876		‘Mark Twain’ Tom Sawyer 74: ‘I only just want to stir him up a little, Joe.’ ‘No, sir, it ain’t fair; you just let him alone.’.
1895		S. Crane Red Badge of Courage (1964) 41: Bill wasn’t scared either. No, sir!
1905		‘Hugh McHugh’ You Can Search Me 91: But I’ll be dod bimmed if I’m going to sit around the parlor and play solos on my bronchial tubes for the edification of strangers – no sir!
1914		M. Glass Potash and Perlmutter 1: ‘No, siree, sir,’ Abe Potash exclaimed.
1928		R. Fisher Walls Of Jericho 5: Henry Patmore was no piker, no sir, not by a damn sight.
1934		O. Strange Sudden 29: There ain’t a smidgin o’ fear in the whole bilin’, no sir.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 121: There are things you just don’t do, he insisted. No sir!
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 673: ‘Nosir,’ Angelo grinned at them craftily-eyed. ‘Nosiree.’.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 147: They’ll even forget it if you deal them a dummy. But rat. No, sir. That is something else. That is the worst.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 243: Know why I’m drinking it now? No? Cause there ain’t going to be no more whisky. No sir.
1985		E. Leonard Glitz 113: I’m not gonna say another word and have it come back to me, no-sir.
1997		Eble Campus Sl. Fall.
2010		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 11 Nov. 🌐 Neither am I giving up on Afrikaans. No, sir!
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 75: He was well past his teenage years now, and it wouldn’t be the reformatory this time, no sir.