Word.ws English Dictionary

had at

had at is the simple past and past participle of have at.

Meaning of have at

Verb

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

  1. (archaic, idiomatic, transitive) To attack; to engage in combat with.
    • The Prince of Venosa was in their midst, shouting: "Have at the traitor! Kill! Kill!"1909, Anatole France (Alfred Allinson, translator), The Well of Saint Clare, ch. 10
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To take on; to begin dealing with.
    • A huge dish of food was served, and we had at it.
    Synonyms:
    set to

See all 3 meanings of have at

Questions about had at

What is had at the simple past and past participle of?
Had at is the simple past and past participle of have at.

Words near had at in the dictionary

  1. had an easy time of it
  2. had an eye for
  3. had an in
  4. had another thing coming
  5. had another think coming
  6. had at
  7. had bats in one's belfry
  8. had been around
  9. had been around the block
  10. had best
  11. had better

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: had at (page history and authors); have at (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “had at.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/had_at. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.