What does distance of a point from line being negative signify?

Expanding on the answer of @Andrew Chin, the sign says in which of the two half-planes (in which the line divides the whole plane) lays the point. If it is from the same side of the vector $(A,B)$ then the result is positive, otherwise negative. Sometime called oriented distance.

For example, for the line of equation $x-2y+1=0$ we have ${\bf n}=(A,B)=(1,-2)$ and the following graphic representation

enter image description here