have

• (stressed) IPA^(key): /hæv/
• (unstressed) IPA^(key): /həv/, /əv/, /ə/
• (have to): (UK, US) IPA^(key): /hæf/, (UK) IPA^(key): /hæv/
• (obsolete, stressed) IPA^(key): /heɪv/

• Audio (US)

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• Audio (UK)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -æv

From Middle English haven, from Old English habban, hafian (“to have”), 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”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian hääbe (“to have”), West Frisian hawwe (“to have”), Dutch hebben (“to have”), Low German hebben, hewwen (“to have”), German haben (“to have”), Danish have (“to have”), Swedish hava (“to have”), Norwegian Nynorsk ha (“to have”), Icelandic hafa (“to have”), Latin capiō (“take”, verb), Russian хапать (xapatʹ, “to seize”). More at heave.

Since there is no common Indo-European root for a transitive possessive verb have (notice that Latin habeō is not 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.[1]

• haue (alternative typography, obsolete)

have (third-person singular simple present has, present participle having, simple past and past participle had)

Additional archaic forms are second-person singular present tense hast, third-person singular present tense hath, present participle haveing, and second-person singular past tense hadst.

1. (transitive) To possess, own, hold.

   I have a house and a car.

   Look what I have here — a frog I found on the street!

2. (transitive) To be related in some way to (with the object identifying the relationship).

   I have two sisters.

   I have a lot of work to do.

3. (transitive) To partake of a particular substance (especially a food or drink) or action.

   I have breakfast at six o'clock.

   Can I have a look at that?

   I'm going to have some pizza and a beer right now.

4. (transitive) To be scheduled to attend or participate in.

   What class do you have right now? I have English.

   Fred won't be able to come to the party; he has a meeting that day.

5. (auxiliary verb, taking a past participle) Used in forming the perfect aspect and the past perfect aspect.

   I have already eaten today.

   I had already eaten.

6. (auxiliary verb, taking a to-infinitive) See have to.

   I have to go.

7. (transitive) To give birth to.

   The couple always wanted to have children.

   My wife is having the baby right now!

   My mother had me when she was 25.

8. (transitive) To engage in sexual intercourse with.

   He's always bragging about how many women he's had.

9. (transitive) To accept as a romantic partner.

   Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.

10. (transitive with bare infinitive) To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
    • 2002, Matt Cyr, Something to Teach Me: Journal of an American in the Mountains of Haiti, Educa Vision, Inc., →ISBN, 25:

      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.

    They had me feed their dog while they were out of town.

11. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To cause to be.

    He had him arrested for trespassing.

    The lecture's ending had the entire audience in tears.

12. (transitive with bare infinitive) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.)

    The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week.

    I've had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.

13. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To depict as being.

    Their stories differed; he said he'd been at work when the incident occurred, but her statement had him at home that entire evening.

    • The Guardian

      Anton Rogan, 8, was one of the runners-up in the Tick Tock Box short story competition, not Anton Rogers as we had it.

14. Used as interrogative auxiliary verb with a following pronoun to form tag questions. (For further discussion, see "Usage notes" below.)

    We haven't eaten dinner yet, have we?

    Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she?

    (UK usage) He has some money, hasn't he?

15. (Britain, slang) To defeat in a fight; take.

    I could have him!

    I'm gonna have you!

16. (dated) To be able to speak a language.

    I have no German.

17. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.

    Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.

18. To be afflicted with, suffer from.

    He had a cold last week.

19. To experience, go through, undergo.

    We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that.

    He had surgery on his hip yesterday.

    I'm having the time of my life!

20. To trick, to deceive.

    You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke.

21. (transitive, often with present participle) To allow; to tolerate.
    • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 2

      "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!"

    The child screamed incessantly for his mother to buy him a toy, but she wasn't having any of it.

    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.

22. (transitive, often used in the negative) To believe, buy, be taken in by.

    I made up an excuse as to why I was out so late, but my wife wasn't having any of it.

23. (transitive) To host someone; to take in as a guest.

    Thank you for having me!

24. (transitive) To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation.

    What do you have for problem two?

    I have two contacts on my scope.

25. (transitive, of a jury) To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case.

    We'll schedule closing arguments for Thursday, and the jury will have the case by that afternoon.

Interrogative auxiliary verb

have ...? (third-person singular has ...?, third-person singular negative hasn’t ...? or has ... not?, negative for all other persons, singular and plural haven’t ...? or have ... not?); in each case, the ellipsis stands for a pronoun.

• Used with a following pronoun to form tag questions after statements that use “have” to form the perfect tense or (in UK usage) that use “have” in the present tense.

  “We haven't eaten dinner yet, have we?”

  “Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she?”

  “I'd bet that student hasn’t studied yet, have they?”

  “You've known all along, haven’t you?”

  “The sun has already set, has it not?”

  (UK usage) “He has some money, hasn’t he?” (see usage notes below)

• This construction forms a tag that converts a present perfect tense sentence into a question. The tag always uses an subject pronoun substituting for the subject. Negative sentences use has or have, distinguished by number. Affirmative sentences use the same followed by not, or alternatively, more commonly, and less formally, hasn’t or haven’t. (See Appendix:English tag questions ).
• In American usage, this construction does not apply to present tense sentences with has or have, or their negations, as a verb; it does not apply either to the construction “have got”. In those cases, one uses “does” or its negation instead. For example: “He has some money, doesn’t he?” and “I have got enough time, don’t I?” These constructions with “do”, “does”, “don’t” or “doesn’t” are considered incorrect in UK usage.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:have.

have (plural haves)

1. A wealthy or privileged person.
   • 1981, Sepia:

     A good credit rating can mean the difference between being a have or a have not.

   • 1999, Various, The Haves and Have Nots (Penguin, →ISBN)

     While these stories serve to make us conscious of the implications of being a “have” or a “have-not,” as with all good literature, they do much more than that. They provide a glimpse into lives that we might never encounter elsewhere.

2. (uncommon) One who has some (contextually specified) thing.
   • 2010, Simon Collin, Dictionary of Wine (A&C Black, →ISBN):

     To find out whether you are a have or a have not, did you understand the malo and Brett sentence a few lines back? If no, this doesn't make any difference to me, as you are the proud possessor of something the 'haves' haven't got. You know exactly what you like and why you like it. The 'haves' pretend to like and understand everything, which by the way is impossible. They deliberate over choosing a bottle in the shop for hours, ...

   • 2013, Kelda, Men Under a Microscope (Author House, →ISBN), page 57:

     Generally, I can assure you that a woman's posterior causes a stir, whether she's considered a have or a have not. But in most cases, men gravitate toward a pair of prominent gluteus muscles because they find this display appealing. This prominent protrusion can make a pair of jeans look like it was painted on, above just being good to look at. And by the way, it also incites some backshot (a Caribbean term for a well-known sex position) and spanking tendencies during sexual activity ...

   • 2014, Derek Prince, Ultimate Security: Finding a Refuge in Difficult Times (Whitaker House, →ISBN):

     The question you must answer is, “Do you have Jesus?” In Jesus, you have eternal life. If you do not have Jesus—if you have not received Him—you do not have “the life.” Are you a “have,” or are you a “have not”? That is a vital decision every person must make—a critical issue you have to resolve for yourself.

• have-not

• auxiliary verb
• past tense
• perfect tense

From have on (“to deceive”).

have (plural haves)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) A fraud or deception; something misleading.

   They advertise it as a great deal, but I think it's a bit of a have.

   • 2017 November 14, Joanna Davis, “Go with the flow in Abel Tasman National Park”, in stuff.co.nz:

     "Open your eyes" is the company's tagline and part of its mission is to wake us up to the area's history, to the fact that New Zealand's '100% pure' marketing is a bit of a have, as well as to share the encouraging conservation efforts under way.

• have at OneLook Dictionary Search

• evah

From Old Norse hagi.

• IPA^(key): /haːvə/, [ˈhæːvə], [ˈhæːw̩]

have c (singular definite haven, plural indefinite haver)

1. garden
2. orchard
3. allotment

From Old Norse hafa (“to have, wear, carry”), from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have, hold”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to seize, grab”).

• ha'

• IPA^(key): /ha/, [ha] or IPA^(key): /haː/, [hæːˀ]

have (imperative hav, infinitive at have, present tense har, past tense havde, perfect tense har haft)

1. have, have got

See hav (“sea, ocean”).

• IPA^(key): /haːvə/, [ˈhæːvə]

have n

1. plural indefinite of hav

• “have” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “have,2” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Middle Dutch have.

• Audio

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have f (plural haven)

1. property, possession

• haveloos

havē

1. Alternative spelling of avē

have

1. Alternative form of haven (“to have”)

Borrowed from Old Norse háfr (“net”), from Proto-Germanic *hēb-, *hēf-, an ablaut form of *hafjaną (“to have; take; catch”). Related to English dialectal haaf (“a pock-net”).

• Audio (Jersey)

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have f (plural haves)

1. (Jersey) shrimp net

• hava (a infinitive)
• ha

From Old Norse hafa, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have”), durative of Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to lift, take up”), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- (“to take, seize, catch”).

have (present tense hev, past tense havde, past participle havt, passive infinitive havast, present participle havande, imperative hav)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2012; superseded by ha

have

1. to have, to possess

have

1. third-person singular present indicative of avere