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

have (has, present participle having; 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.
    I have a house and a car.
  2. (transitive) To hold, as something at someone's disposal.
    Look what I have here — a frog I found on the street!
    Do you have the key? (not necessarily one's own key)
  3. (transitive) Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject.
    I have two sisters.
    She doesn't have any friends.
    I have a really mean boss.
  4. (transitive) To partake of (a particular substance, especially food or drink, or action or activity).
    I have breakfast at six o'clock.
    Can I have a look at that?
    I'm going to have a bath now.
    Let's have a game of tiddlywinks.
  5. (transitive) To be scheduled to attend, undertake 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.
    I have a lot of work to do.
  6. 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!
  7. To be afflicted with, suffer from.
    He had a cold last week.
  8. (auxiliary verb, taking a past participle) Used in forming the perfect aspect.
    I have already eaten today.
    I had already eaten.
    I will have left by the time you get here.
  9. 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.)
    They haven't eaten dinner yet, have they?
    Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she?
    (UK usage) He has some money, hasn't he?
  10. (auxiliary verb, taking a to-infinitive) See have to.
    I have to go.
  11. (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.
  12. (transitive) To engage in sexual intercourse with.
    He's always bragging about how many women he's had.
  13. (transitive) To accept as a romantic partner.
    Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
  14. (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 1584321385, gbooks quEn9UyekEgC:
      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.
  15. (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.
  16. (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.
  17. (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.
  18. (British, slang) To defeat in a fight; take.
    I could have him!
    I'm gonna have you!
  19. (dated, outside, Ireland) To be able to speak (a language).
    I have no German.
  20. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
    Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
  21. To trick, to deceive.
    You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke.
  22. (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.
  23. (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.
  24. (transitive) To host someone; to take in as a guest.
    Thank you for having me!
  25. (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.
  26. (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.
Conjugation