Word.ws English Dictionary

have it both ways

have it both ways verb: synonym of have one's cake and eat it too.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) Synonym of have one's cake and eat it too.

Synonyms of have it both ways

Forms of have it both ways

third-person singular presenthas it both ways
present participlehaving it both ways
past participlehad it both ways
pasthad it both ways

Questions about have it both ways

What does have it both ways mean?
Have it both ways means synonym of have one's cake and eat it too.
What part of speech is have it both ways?
Have it both ways is a verb.
What is the past tense of have it both ways?
The past tense of have it both ways is had it both ways.

Words near have it both ways in the dictionary

  1. have in mind
  2. have it
  3. have it all
  4. have it away
  5. have it bad
  6. have it both ways
  7. have it coming
  8. have it easy
  9. have it going on
  10. have it in for
  11. have it in one

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have it both ways (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-have it both ways.ogg.

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