had
Pronunciation Verb
  1. Simple past tense and past participle of have.
    • 1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, […], OCLC 39810224 ↗, page 1 ↗:
      About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, […].
  2. (auxiliary) Used to form the pluperfect tense, expressing a completed action in the past (with a past participle).
    • 2011 April 15, Ben Cooper, The Guardian, London:
      Cooper seems an odd choice, but imagine if they had taken MTV's advice and chosen Robert Pattinson?
  3. (auxiliary, now rare) As past subjunctive: would have.
    • 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
      To holde myne honde, by God, I had grete payne; / For forthwyth there I had him slayne, / But that I drede mordre wolde come oute […].
    • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 4, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:
      Julius Cæsar had escaped death, if going to the Senate-house, that day wherein he was murthered by the Conspirators, he had read a memorial which was presented unto him.
    • 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, 24:
      If all was good and fair we met, / This earth had been the Paradise / It never look’d to human eyes / Since our first Sun arose and set.
Adjective
  1. (informal) Duped.
    We've been had.
  2. (obsolete) Available.
Related terms


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