Word.ws English Dictionary

have been in the wars

have been in the wars verb: to have been seriously hurt, or greatly damaged.

Verb

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

  1. (Australia, UK, humorous) To have been seriously hurt, or greatly damaged.
    • I can see that battered old hat of yours has been in the wars.

Forms of have been in the wars

third-person singular presenthas been in the wars
present participlehaving been in the wars
past participlehad been in the wars
pasthad been in the wars

Questions about have been in the wars

What does have been in the wars mean?
Have been in the wars means to have been seriously hurt, or greatly damaged.
What part of speech is have been in the wars?
Have been in the wars is a verb.
What is the past tense of have been in the wars?
The past tense of have been in the wars is had been in the wars.

Words near have been in the wars in the dictionary

  1. have at
  2. have at you
  3. have bats in one's belfry
  4. have been around
  5. have been around the block
  6. have been in the wars
  7. have been to an Irish wedding
  8. have blood on one's hands
  9. have butterflies in one's stomach
  10. have designs on
  11. have done

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have been in the wars (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 have been in the wars.ogg.

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