Word.ws English Dictionary

have someone's number

have someone's number verb: to understand a person's character, capabilities, or situation.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To understand a person's character, capabilities, or situation.
    • "Whenever a person says to you that they are as innocent as can be in all concerning money, look well after your own money, for they are dead certain to collar it, if they can. Whenever a person proclaims to you ‘In worldly matters I’m a child,’ you consider that that person is only a crying off...1852 March – 1853 September, Charles Dickens, chapter 57, in Bleak House, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1853, →OCLC
    • "Say! He's the hardest guy I ever saw," Stoner declared, admiringly. Mallow spoke last, but he spoke with conviction. "You said it, Brick. I had his number from the start. He's a master crook, and—it'll pay us all to string with him."1922, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 10, in Flowing Gold
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see have, someone's, number.

Forms of have someone's number

third-person singular presenthas someone's number
present participlehaving someone's number
past participlehad someone's number
pasthad someone's number
alternative formget someone's number

Questions about have someone's number

What does have someone's number mean?
Have someone's number means to understand a person's character, capabilities, or situation.
What part of speech is have someone's number?
Have someone's number is a verb.
What is the past tense of have someone's number?
The past tense of have someone's number is had someone's number.

Words near have someone's number in the dictionary

  1. have someone's ear
  2. have someone's guts for garters
  3. have someone's head
  4. have someone's hide
  5. have someone's nose wide open
  6. have someone's number
  7. have someone's six
  8. have something going for one
  9. have something going with someone
  10. have something on good authority
  11. have something over someone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have someone's number (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-au-have someone's number.ogg.

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