Word.ws English Dictionary

have

/ˈhæv/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈhav/

have verb: to possess, own.

Verb

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

  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?
  3. (transitive) To include as a part, ingredient, or feature.
    • The stove has a handle. The shirt has sleeves.
    • The words cow and dog have three letters.
  4. (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.
  5. (transitive) To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink).
    • I have breakfast at six o'clock.
    • You've already had five drinks!
  6. (transitive) To undertake or perform (an action or activity).
    • Can I have a look at that?
    • He's having a tantrum about it.
  7. (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.
  8. (transitive) 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.
  9. (transitive) To be afflicted with, suffer from.
    • He had a cold last week.
  10. (auxiliary, with-past-participle) Used in forming the perfect aspect.
    • I have already eaten today.
    • Mom's gone real mad, she has.
  11. 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?
  12. (auxiliary, with infinitive, with-to) See have to.
    • I have to go.
Show 22 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (transitive) To give birth to.
    • The couple always wanted to have children.
    • My wife is having the baby right now!
  2. (informal, passive, usually) To obtain.
    • The substance you describe can't be had at any price.
    • Out there is a fortune waiting to be had / You think I'll let it go you're mad / You've got another thing comin'1982, Rob Halford, K. K. Downing, Glenn Tipton, “You've Got Another Thing Comin'”, in Screaming for Vengeance, performed by Judas Priest, side 2, track 2
  3. (transitive) To engage in sexual intercourse with.
    • He’s always bragging about how many women he’s had.
    • Tame midweek stress the fun way. Have each other before dinner to reconnect after a long day.2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 134
  4. (transitive) To accept as a romantic partner.
    • Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
  5. (transitive, with infinitive) To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
    • They had me feed their dog while they were out of town.
    • Her very boyfriend is the person the criminal has do most of her dirty deeds.
  6. (transitive, with-adjective) To cause to be.
    • He had him arrested for trespassing.
    • I'd better have my watch repaired today: tomorrow I have to have my hair cut before having pictures taken for my passport.
  7. (transitive, with infinitive) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is a small clause.)
    • The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week.
    • I’ve had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.
  8. (transitive, with-adjective) 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.
    • Anton Rogan, 8, was one of the runners-up in the Tick Tock Box short story competition, not Anton Rogers as we had it.2011 May 3, “Corrections and clarifications”, in The Guardian
  9. (UK, slang, transitive) To defeat in a fight; take.
    • I could have him!
  10. (UK, slang, transitive) To inflict punishment or retribution on.
    • When we did a rerecorded version for Top of the Pops, the Musicians' Union bloke said, "If I think you're making strings sounds out of a synthesiser, I'm going to have you. Video Killed the Radio Star is putting musicians out of business."2018 October 30, Dave Simpson, “The Buggles: how we made Video Killed the Radio Star”, in The Guardian, Guardian News & Media, retrieved 20 Mar 2025
    • You broke the window! Teacher’ll have you for that!
  11. (transitive, dated outside Ireland) To be able to speak (a language).
    • I have no German.
    • To the extent that I wear skirts and cheap nylon slips, I’ve gone native. But it doesn’t take long to find me out. Already the waiter realizes I don’t have much Spanish. Out of respect for my homeland, the waiter’s bringing me ketchup and mustard... He gives me a vast, four-page menu of which, he...1986, Denish Johnson, The Stars at Noon, Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 29
  12. (transitive) To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
    • Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
  13. (informal, often, passive, transitive) To trick, to deceive.
    • I bought a laptop online but it never arrived. I think I've been had!
    • You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke.
  14. (transitive, often in continuous tenses) To allow; to tolerate.
    • 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.
  15. (often, transitive) 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.
  16. (transitive) To host someone; to take in as a guest.
    • Thank you for having me!
  17. (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.
  18. (transitive) 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.
  19. (transitive) To make an observation of (a bird species).
    • For some reason, "I had a Freckled Duck today" never seems to work as a pick-up line.2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 57
  20. (transitive) To capture or actively hold someone's attention or interest.
    • Thurs nite I went to see Lou Reed […] and Lou, oh God, he completely had me. I was lost at the foot of a god.1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure
  21. (transitive) To grasp the meaning of; comprehend.
    • Ah! Now I have it!
  22. (nonstandard, transitive, non-native speakers' English) To be (an age).
    • My name is Helene de Pontis and I search penpals from all over the world, but not only. I have 20 years and I am a single.2002 December 1, Helene de Pontis, “Hello, it's me”, in soc.singles (Usenet), archived from the original on 28 Jul 2026
    • My name is Rafael Torres de Almeida, I have 20 years of age, I live in São Paulo - Brazil2003 August 2, Rafael Torres de Almeida, “MCP, MCSA, MCSE e MCT "--Today--"”, in microsoft.public.cert.mct (Usenet), archived from the original on 28 Jul 2026

Noun (1)

have (plural haves)

  1. (contrastive, idiomatic, usually) A wealthy or privileged person.
    • A good credit rating can mean the difference between being a have or a have not.1981, Sepia
    • 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.1999, Various, The Haves and Have Nots, Penguin, →ISBN
    Antonyms:
    have-not
  2. (idiomatic, uncommon) One who has some (contextually specified) thing.
    • 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'...2010, Simon Collin, Dictionary of Wine, A&C Black, →ISBN
    • 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...2013, Kelda, Men Under a Microscope, Author House, →ISBN, page 57

Noun (2)

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

Noun (3)

have (plural haves)

  1. (dialectal) A hawthorn.
    • "Why, thin, what was it but the green laves o' the ould bush, an' the rid bunches o' the haves that war wavin' and shakin' in the moonlight."1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn

have meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Nepali and Tagalog

have in Hindi

1. to possess
रखना rakhnā, ...के पास ...ke pās, ...के ...ke

have in Urdu

1. to possess
... کے پاس ... ke pās

have in Nepali

1. to possess
...सँग हुनु ...sãg hunu, राख्नु rākhnu

have in Tagalog

1. to possess
magkaroon
More languagesFewer languages
have in Arabic
مَلَكَ malaka, اِمْتَلَكَ imtalaka, تَمَلَّكَ tamallaka, عِنْدَ ʕinda
have in Malay
ada, punya, mempunyai
have in Indonesian
punya
have in Persian
داشتن dâštan
have in Thai
มี mii
have in Vietnamese
có

Examples of have in a sentence

  • I have a really mean boss.
  • I’m going to have a bath now.
  • Let’s have a game of tiddlywinks.
  • I have a lot of work to do.
  • I hope you have a wonderful birthday.
  • I will have left by the time you get here.

All 40 example sentences with have

Synonyms of have

Antonyms

Forms of have

Verb
third-person singular presenthas
present participlehaving
past participlehad
pasthad
alternative form've
alternative formhae
alternative formhav
second-person singular present (archaic)hast
second-person singular past (archaic)hadst
third-person singular present (dialectal)have
third-person singular present (archaic)hath
present participle (archaic)haveing
alternative alternative (obsolete)haue
Noun
pluralhaves

Past tense of have: had

Plural of have: haves

Origin of have

From Middle English haven, from Old English habban (“to have”), from Proto-West Germanic *habbjan, from Proto-Germanic *habjaną (“to have”), durative of *habjaną (“to lift, take up”), from Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti, an imperfective formation to the root *kap- (“to take, seize, catch”). Related to heave. Since there is no common Indo-European root for a transitive possessive verb have (notice that Latin habeō is not etymologically 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. The nonstandard etymology 1, verb sense 34 (“to be (an age)”) is a semantic loan from other languages’ term for “to possess, own”, such as French avoir, Polish mieć, and Spanish tener. Cognates Cognate with Scots hae (“to have”), North Frisian haa, heewe (“to have”), Saterland Frisian häbe, hääbe (“to have”), West Frisian hawwe (“to have”), Afrikaans hê (“to have”), Alemannic German haa, heen, hoh, hä, häbä, hè (“to have”), Bavarian hobm, hobn, hoom, håbn (“to have”), Cimbrian haban, hen, håm (“to have”), Dutch and Low German hebben...

From have on (“to deceive”).

Variant of haw.

Words formed from have

Phrases with have

152 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with have

Questions about have

What does have mean?
Have means to possess, own.
What is have in Hindi?
Have in Hindi is रखना (rakhnā), ...के पास (...ke pās), ...के (...ke). See Have meaning in Hindi.
How do you use have in a sentence?
I have a really mean boss.
What part of speech is have?
Have can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce have?
Have is pronounced /ˈhæv/ (UK).
What is the past tense of have?
The past tense of have is had.

Words near have in the dictionary

  1. Havasupai-Walapai-Yavapai
  2. Havasupais
  3. Havdala
  4. Havdalah
  5. Havdoloh
  6. have
  7. have a bad time of it
  8. have a ball
  9. have a bar of it
  10. have a bird
  11. have a bite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-have.ogg, EN-AU ck1 have.ogg, En-uk-to have.ogg.

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