have
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: note: strong form
ipa: /hæv/
note: weak form
ipa: /həv/
note: weak form
ipa: /əv/
note: weak form
ipa: /ə/
ipa: /hæf/
ipa: /hæv/
ipa: /heɪv/
homophone: halve stripped-by-parse_pron_post_template_fn
rhymes: -æv
Forms: form: has
form: having
form: had
form: had
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: have
form: have
form: had
form: have
form: hast
form: had
form: hadst
form: has
form: have
form: hath
form: had
form: have
form: had
form: have
form: had
form: have
form: -
form: having
form: haveing
form: had
form: 've
form: haue
form: hae
Etymology: From Middle English haven, from Old English habban (“to have”), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have”), durative of *habjaną (“to lift, take up”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂pyéti, present tense of *keh₂p- (“to take, seize, catch”). Related to heave.
Since there is no common Indo-European root for a transitive possessive verb have (notice that Latin habeō is not etymologically related to English have), Proto-Indo-European probably lacked the have structure. Instead, the third person forms of be were used, with the possessor in dative case, compare Latin mihi est / sunt, literally to me is / are.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots hae (“to have”), North Frisian haa, heewe (“to have”), Saterland Frisian häbe, hääbe (“to have”), West Frisian hawwe (“to have”), Afrikaans hê (“to have”), Alemannic German haa, heen, hoh, hä, häbä, hè (“to have”), Bavarian hobm, hobn, hoom, håbn (“to have”), Cimbrian haban, hen, håm (“to have”), Dutch, Low German hebben (“to have”), German haben (“to have”), Limburgish haane, höbbe (“to have”), Luxembourgish hunn (“to have”), Mòcheno hom (“to have”), Vilamovian hon (“to have”), Yiddish האָבן (hobn, “to have”), Danish have (“to have”), Elfdalian åvå (“to have”), Faroese hava (“to have”), Icelandic hafa (“to have”), Norwegian Bokmål ha (“to have”), Norwegian Nynorsk ha, hava, have, hå (“to have”), Swedish ha, hafva, hava (“to have”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban, “to have”), Albanian kap (“to grab, catch, grip”), Latin capiō (“take”, verb), Russian хапать (xapatʹ, “to seize”).
Senses: examples: text: I have a house and a car.
glosses: To possess, own.
examples: text: Look what I have here—a frog I found on the street!
text: Do you have the key?
glosses: To hold, as something at someone's disposal.
examples: text: The stove has a handle. The shirt has sleeves.
text: The words cow and dog have three letters.
text: A government has three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial.
text: The movie has lots of action.
glosses: To include as a part, ingredient, or feature.
examples: text: I have two sisters.
text: She doesn’t have any friends.
text: I have a really mean boss.
glosses: Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject.
examples: text: I have breakfast at six o'clock.
text: You've already had five drinks!
text: She's had more than enough time already.
glosses: To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink).
examples: text: Can I have a look at that?
text: He's having a tantrum about it.
text: I’m going to have a bath now.
text: Let’s have a game of tiddlywinks.
glosses: To undertake or perform (an action or activity).
examples: text: What class do you have right now? I have English.
text: Fred won’t be able to come to the party; he has a meeting that day.
text: I have a lot of work to do.
glosses: To be scheduled to attend, undertake or participate in.
examples: text: We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that.
text: He had surgery on his hip yesterday.
text: I’m having the time of my life!
text: I hope you have a wonderful birthday.
text: This year we're having Christmas with my wife's family in Thunder Bay.
glosses: To experience, go through, undergo.
examples: text: He had a cold last week.
glosses: To be afflicted with, suffer from.
examples: text: I have already eaten today.
text: Mom's gone real mad, she has.
text: The universe is expanding and has been since its beginning.
text: I will have left by the time you get here.
text: This is the first (and last) time I've eaten lobster.
text: I’ve worked here for exactly four years, one month and 10 days.
text: The dogs have eaten your dinner, and I ate the last of the frozen burgers this morning.
text: The American Revolution has influenced every democratic process in Europe since the 19th c.
glosses: Used in forming the perfect aspect.
examples: text: They haven’t eaten dinner yet, have they?
text: Your wife hasn’t been reading that nonsense, has she?
text: He has some money, hasn’t he?
glosses: Used as an interrogative verb before a pronoun to form a tag question, echoing a previous use of 'have' as an auxiliary verb or, in certain cases, main verb. (For further discussion, see the appendix English tag questions.)
examples: text: I have to go.
glosses: See have to.
examples: text: The couple always wanted to have children.
text: My wife is having the baby right now!
text: My mother had me when she was 25.
glosses: To give birth to.
examples: text: The substance you describe can't be had at any price.
text: Out there is a fortune waiting to be had / You think I'll let it go you're mad / You've got another thing comin'
ref: 1982, Rob Halford, K. K. Downing, Glenn Tipton, “You've Got Another Thing Comin'”, in Screaming for Vengeance, performed by Judas Priest, side 2, track 2:
glosses: To obtain.
examples: text: He’s always bragging about how many women he’s had.
text: Tame midweek stress the fun way. Have each other before dinner to reconnect after a long day.
ref: 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 134:
glosses: To engage in sexual intercourse with.
examples: text: Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
glosses: To accept as a romantic partner.
examples: text: They had me feed their dog while they were out of town.
text: Her very boyfriend is the person the criminal has do most of her dirty deeds.
text: The floor has had oil dropped all over it.
text: His English is still in its beginning stages, like my Creole, but he was able to translate some Creole songs that he's written into English—not the best English, but English nonetheless. He had me correct the translations. That kind of thing is very interesting to me. When I was learning Spanish, I would often take my favorite songs and try to translate them.
ref: 2002, Matt Cyr, Something to Teach Me: Journal of an American in the Mountains of Haiti, Educa Vision, Inc., →ISBN, page 25:
glosses: To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
examples: text: He had him arrested for trespassing.
text: I'd better have my watch repaired today: tomorrow I have to have my hair cut before having pictures taken for my passport.
text: The lecture’s ending had the entire audience in tears.
text: Jim has his eyes closed.
glosses: To cause to be.
examples: text: The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week.
text: I’ve had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.
glosses: To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is a small clause.)
examples: text: Their stories differed; he said he’d been at work when the incident occurred, but her statement had him at home that entire evening.
text: Anton Rogan, 8, was one of the runners-up in the Tick Tock Box short story competition, not Anton Rogers as we had it.
ref: 2011 May 3, “Corrections and clarifications”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To depict as being.
examples: text: I could have him!
glosses: To defeat in a fight; take.
examples: text: When we did a rerecorded version for Top of the Pops, the Musicians' Union bloke said, "If I think you're making strings sounds out of a synthesiser, I'm going to have you. Video Killed the Radio Star is putting musicians out of business."
ref: 2018 October 30, Dave Simpson, “The Buggles: how we made Video Killed the Radio Star”, in The Guardian, Guardian News & Media, retrieved 20 Mar 2025:
text: You broke the window! Teacher’ll have you for that!
glosses: To inflict punishment or retribution on.
examples: text: I have no German.
qualifier: dated outside Ireland
glosses: To be able to speak (a language).
examples: text: Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
glosses: To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
examples: text: I bought a laptop online but it never arrived. I think I've been had!
text: You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke.
glosses: To trick, to deceive.
examples: text: The child screamed incessantly for his mother to buy him a toy, but she wasn't having any of it.
text: I asked my dad if I could go to the concert this Thursday, but he wouldn't have it since it's a school night.
text: “ You're a very naughty boy. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. I won't have you chasing the geese!”
ref: 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC, page 19:
qualifier: often in continuous tenses
glosses: To allow; to tolerate.
raw_tags: in the negative
examples: text: I made up an excuse as to why I was out so late, but my wife wasn't having any of it.
glosses: To believe, buy, be taken in by.
raw_tags: used in the negative
examples: text: Thank you for having me!
glosses: To host someone; to take in as a guest.
examples: text: What do you have for problem two?
text: I have two contacts on my scope.
glosses: To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation.
examples: text: We’ll schedule closing arguments for Thursday, and the jury will have the case by that afternoon.
glosses: To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case.
raw_tags: of a jury
examples: text: For some reason, "I had a Freckled Duck today" never seems to work as a pick-up line.
ref: 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 57:
topics: biology
birdwatching
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: To make an observation of (a bird species).
examples: 1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
Thurs nite I went to see Lou Reed […] and Lou, oh God, he completely had me. I was lost at the foot of a god.
glosses: To capture or actively hold someone's attention or interest.
examples: text: Ah! Now I have it!
glosses: To grasp the meaning of; comprehend.
Synonyms: sense: engage in sexual intercourse with
word: have one's way with
word: sleep with
word: take
word: copulate with
Derived terms: behave
haggaday
havable
have a ball
have a cow
have against
have a good weekend
have a lend of
have a lot of time
have a moment
have a monk on
have a shit
have a short memory
have a sixpenny bit up one's backside
have a thing going on
have a turtle's head
have at you
have a way about one
have a whack at
have down
have ears
have got it made
have had enough
have had it
have it all
have it in for
have it off
have it rough
have no fear of ice cold beer
have none of something
have nothing on
have nothing to lose
have nots
have off
have on
have one more time
have one's bread buttered on both sides
have one's fill
have one's finger on the trigger
have one's fingers in the till
have one's hump up
haves
have shit on
have something over someone
have the ball in one's court
have the cards
have the law of
have the right time
have the whole bakery
have to
having it
havingness
having said that
heft
Houston, we have a problem
let's be having you
mishave
must-have
nice-to-have
not have a clue
person having ordinary skill in the art
stranger things have happened
those that have, get
time flies when you're having fun
-'ve
we have always been at war with Eastasia
we have company