See Also:

have(2) (iou)



have verb. = have not; (joc. & colloq.) ain't = have not; (arch.) an't = have not.
[Old English habban = Old Frisian hebba, Old Saxon hebbian (Dutch hebben), Old High German haben (German haben), Old Norse hafa, Gothic haban, from Germanic base prob. rel. to HEAVE verb. In Middle English the habb- forms were reduced by levelling to hav-; the haf- forms (in Old English in past indic. and 2nd & 3rd person sing. pres. indic.) lost their f before the following consonant to give ha-th, ha-s, etc.]
I. verb trans. Possess.
Hold in possession as one's property or as something at one's disposal. OE.
J. Steinbeck You have only ragged overalls and no hat. W. Golding They had more toys than they wanted.
Possess in a certain relationship. OE.
T. Herbert They used to have their Wives in common. R. C. Hutchinson He had no brothers or sisters.
Possess or contain as a part or adjunct. OE.
C. P. Snow She had a large, blunt, knobbly nose. Scott Fitzgerald Every cross has just a date on it, and the word 'Unknown'.
Possess as an attribute, function, position, etc.; be characterized by. OE.
H. James If he hadn't a sense of beauty he had after all a sense of justice. J. Buchan The air..had the strangest effect on my spirits. W. Golding The universe had a beginning.
a. Experience, be affected with; enjoy; suffer. OE.
R. Rendell Mr Knightow had a shock. He went white. J. Rhys I am having one devil of a time. B. Neil Did people like Ben have athlete's foot and piles?
b. Hold, or allow to be present, in the mind; be the subject of (a feeling). OE.
B. Jowett They have the feelings of old men about youth. J. H. Shorthouse I have no doubt the Italian is at the bottom of all this.
c. Possess with the mind; understand; know. LME.
V. Woolf I had all Shakespeare by heart before I was in my teens. I. Murdoch He knew Latin and Greek.., I had only a little French.
Possess as a thing to be done or to happen. Foll. by obj. & inf. OE.
J. H. Newman He had nothing special to say for himself. Strand Magazine Her contract..had two years more to run.
b. Be under an obligation to do; be necessitated by circumstances to do. L16.
R. C. Hutchinson I had to make a mental effort to remember where I was going. Q. Crisp I have to go back to work. R. Rendell She got pregnant and..Adam had to marry her.
Hold or keep in some relation to oneself. Now chiefly in certain set phrs. OE.
have in mind, have in one's possession, have in safekeeping, have in sight, etc.
Hold in a specified estimation; regard as. (Foll. by in, at.) arch. OE.
Engage in, carry on, (an activity); organize and bring about (a meeting, party, etc.). OE.
have a go, have a look, have a go try, etc.
P. Roth Shuki apologized for being unable to have dinner with me. R. Huntford Shackleton and Elspeth Beardmore were having an affair.
Exercise (a personal attribute or quality) or show the presence of (a feeling) by one's action or attitude, esp. towards a person. ME.
have a care, have mercy, etc. have patience with, have regard to, have the goodness to do, have the impudence to do, etc.
I. Murdoch I'm still a rational being, so have the decency to address me as one.
refl. Behave. LME-M16.
Assert, maintain; claim, allege, (that). Chiefly with it. LME.
W. Golding The scurvy politician, as my favourite author would have it. M. Milner Tradition has it that this is the place where the heathen used to sacrifice their children.
b. Foll. by obj. & inf. without to. Represent (a person) as doing, esp. in a work of fiction. colloq. E20.
II. verb trans. Obtain, get.
Possess by obtaining or receiving; get, obtain; take and imbibe (a drink) or eat (food, a meal); conceive (an idea); have obtained (a qualification). OE.
G. Rose If Lord Spencer returns he must have the Admiralty. Times Literary Supplement All these books may be had of any bookseller. G. S. Haight Mary Ann asked to have her letters back.
b. Give birth to. LME.
G. Orwell I'm thirty-nine and I've had four children. I. Murdoch A spider..which lives in a burrow and has its young in the late summer.
c. In imper. Cheers! (as a drinking toast). dial. & (with to you) arch. LME.
With obj. & compl.
a. With pres. or pa. pple or inf. Experience or suffer the specified action happening to or being done to (a thing or person). ME.
T. Hardy You would rather have me die than have your equatorial stolen.
b. With adjective or adverb (phr.). Bring into a specified condition or state. ME.
E. Waugh She can't print that. She'll have us all in prison.
c. With pa. pple or inf. (now usu. without to). Cause or oblige (a person or thing) to be subject to a specified action or to carry out a specified action. LME.
J. P. Donleavy I can call the police and have you thrown out. B. Moore She had him bring the car up to the entrance. E. Bowen I'm going..to have my hair cut. K. Hulme For a moment..you had me worried.
With will, would. Wish, will, or require (a person) to (arch. to) do or (a deed) to be done; (with it) wish or require the doing of (a deed) or the occurrence of (an event, situation, etc.). ME.
Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona What would your Grace have me to do in this? G. Berkeley Those who will have us judge of distance by lines and angles. I. Fleming As luck would have it, there were no vacancies and I had to turn him down. I. Colegate He was a village boy, though his mother would have it he was something better.
b. With will not, would not: not permit or tolerate. Foll. by obj., or obj. & pple or inf. (without to). L16.
Tennyson O my friend, I will not have thee die! V. Woolf She would have none of it.
Cause to come or go; bring; take. arch. ME.
R. L. Stevenson A little later he was had to bed.
Have got into one's power or at a disadvantage; colloq. get the better of in an argument etc. L16.
New Yorker 'How many other politicians would take a chance on asking this question?' he asked..and he had them there.
Have sexual intercourse with. slang. L16.
Outwit; deceive; cheat. slang. E19.
M. E. Braddon If you've advanced money on 'em, you've been had.
III. verb intrans.
Of a person: go; come over here. LME-M19.
Foll. by at (or, arch., other prepositions): go at, esp. aggressively; attack; make an attempt at. Usu. in imper. LME.
J. Buchan Sit down, sir, and have at that pie.
IV. Idiomatic uses.
had (pa. subjunct.), have (pres. indic.), would: in expressions of preference, desirability, or obligation. Foll. by adjectives (or adverbs) in compar., superl., or positive with as. Now esp. in had better below, had rather. ME.
J. B. Mozley You must give way; and you had as well do so voluntarily. W. H. Mallock I had best not give her any.
With subj. duplicated by pers. or refl. pronoun as indirect (dative) obj. Provide or get for oneself; indulge oneself with. colloq. (chiefly N. Amer.). E20.
O. La Farge He had himself two good highballs. New Yorker I got to have me one of them.
V. As aux. verb with pa. pple of another verb, forming past tenses of the latter expressing action already completed at the time indicated.
a. Pres. tense. OE.
E. Bowen You could have run the world.
b. Pa. tense. OE.
J. C. Powys Three months had passed. J. Conrad The carpenter had driven in the last wedge.
c. Compound tenses. ME.
Shelley Before the whirlwind wakes I shall have found My inn of lasting rest. C. M. Kirkland I thought I never should have got out.
d. In compound tenses with redundant have or had. Now US dial. LME.
J. F. Wilson 'If the fire hadn't have gone out,' he mused.
Phrases: (A selection of cross-refs. only is included: see esp. other nouns.) had better colloq. would find it wiser to; ought to. have a nice day (orig. US) (a wish expressed on saying) goodbye. have a person's guts for garters: see GUT noun. have a wolf by the ears: see WOLF noun. have got: see GET verb 38. have to be, have got to be colloq. must be (expr. certainty). have had colloq. have had enough of, be tired of or discontented with. have had it colloq. (a) have lost one's chance, have no chance; (b) be past one's prime or past its best; (c) have been killed, defeated, exhausted, etc. have it (a) gain a victory or advantage; win (esp. a vote); (b) colloq. receive a beating, punishment, etc. (chiefly in let a person have it); (c) have thought of the answer, a solution, etc.; (d) have it away (slang) = have it off, sense (i) below; (e) have it both ways, choose now one, now the other of alternatives or contradictories to suit one's argument etc.; (f) have it coming to one: see COME verb; (g) have it in for (colloq.), intend revenge on; seek to harm; (h) have it in one, have the capacity (to do); (i) have it off (slang), have sexual intercourse (with); (j) have it off (Criminals' slang), commit a robbery; (k) have it on, have it over, have the advantage of; be superior to; (l) have it out: see have out below; (m) have it so good (colloq.), possess so many advantages, esp. of a material kind; usu. in neg. contexts; (see also sense 12 above). have nothing on (a) have no advantage or superiority over; (b) know nothing discreditable or incriminating about. have sex (with): see SEX noun 4b. have to wife: see WIFE noun. have way: see WAY noun. have words: see WORD noun 7. to have and to hold have or receive and continue to keep. WHAT have you.
With adverbs in specialized senses: have on colloq. hoax, deceive jocularly; (see also ON adverb). have out (a) colloq. bring (a contentious matter) to a resolution by discussion or argument; (b) get (a tooth, appendix, etc.) taken out. have up bring before a court of justice; call to account.