Etimology
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 *kh₂pyéti, present tense of *keh₂p- (“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.
verb
have (third-person singular simple present has, present participle having, simple past and past participle had)
(transitive) To possess, own.
(transitive) To hold, as something at someone's disposal.
(transitive) To include as a part, ingredient, or feature.
(transitive) Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject.
(transitive) To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink).
(transitive) To undertake or perform (an action or activity).
(transitive) To be scheduled to attend, undertake or participate in.
To experience, go through, undergo.
To be afflicted with, suffer from.
(auxiliary verb, taking a past participle) Used in forming the perfect aspect.
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.)
(auxiliary verb, taking a to-infinitive) See have to.
(transitive) To give birth to.
(informal, usually passive) To obtain.
(transitive) To engage in sexual intercourse with.
(transitive) To accept as a romantic partner.
(transitive with bare infinitive) To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
(transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To cause to be.
(transitive with bare infinitive) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.)
(transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To depict as being.
(British, slang) To defeat in a fight; take.
(British, slang) To inflict punishment or retribution on.
(dated outside Ireland) To be able to speak (a language).
To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
(informal, often passive) To trick, to deceive.
(transitive, in the negative, often in continuous tenses) To allow; to tolerate.
(transitive, often used in the negative) To believe, buy, be taken in by.
(transitive) To host someone; to take in as a guest.
(transitive) To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation.
(transitive, of a jury) To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case.
(transitive, birdwatching) To make an observation of (a bird species).
(transitive) To capture or actively hold someone's attention or interest.
(transitive) To grasp the meaning of; comprehend.
Examples
I have a house and a car.
Look what I have here—a frog I found on the street!
Do you have the key?
The stove has a handle. The shirt has sleeves.
The words cow and dog have three letters.
A government has three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial.
The movie has lots of action.
I have two sisters.
She doesn’t have any friends.
I have a really mean boss.
I have breakfast at six o'clock.
You've already had five drinks!
She's had more than enough time already.
Can I have a look at that?
He's having a tantrum about it.
I’m going to have a bath now.
Let’s have a game of tiddlywinks.
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.
I have a lot of work to do.
We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that.
He had surgery on his hip yesterday.
I’m having the time of my life!
I hope you have a wonderful birthday.
This year we're having Christmas with my wife's family in Thunder Bay.
He had a cold last week.
I have already eaten today.
I had already eaten.
I will have left by the time you get here.
They haven’t eaten dinner yet, have they?
Your wife hasn’t been reading that nonsense, has she?
He has some money, hasn’t he?
I have to go.
The couple always wanted to have children.
My wife is having the baby right now!
My mother had me when she was 25.
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'
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.
Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
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.
His English is still in its beginning stages, like my Creole, but he was able to translate some Creole songs that he's written into English—not the best English, but English nonetheless. He had me correct the translations. That kind of thing is very interesting to me. When I was learning Spanish, I would often take my favorite songs and try to translate them.
He had him arrested for trespassing.
The lecture’s ending had the entire audience in tears.
Jim has his eyes closed.
The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week.
I’ve had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.
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.
I could have him!
You broke the window! Teacher’ll have you for that!
I have no German.
Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
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.
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.
“ You're a very naughty boy. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. I won't have you chasing the geese!”
I made up an excuse as to why I was out so late, but my wife wasn't having any of it.
Thank you for having me!
What do you have for problem two?
I have two contacts on my scope.
We’ll schedule closing arguments for Thursday, and the jury will have the case by that afternoon.
For some reason, "I had a Freckled Duck today" never seems to work as a pick-up line.
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.
Ah! Now I have it!
Related words
synonyms
(engage in sexual intercourse with): have one's way with, sleep with, take; see also Thesaurus:copulate with
noun
have (plural haves)
(usually contrastive) A wealthy or privileged person.
(uncommon) One who has some (contextually specified) thing.
Examples
A good credit rating can mean the difference between being a have or a have not.
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.
A longtime advocate for racial and social justice with a degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, Walker, 40, got into politics at the urging of Edwards, an African American woman widely praised as a bridge-builder between the city’s haves and have-nots.
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' pretend to like and understand everything, which by the way is impossible. They deliberate over choosing a bottle in the shop for hours, ...
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 was painted on, above just being good to look at. And by the way, it also incites some backshot and spanking tendencies during sexual activity ...
The question you must answer is, “Do you have Jesus?” In Jesus, you have eternal life. If you do not have Jesus—if you have not received Him—you do not have “the life.” Are you a “have,” or are you a “have not”? That is a vital decision every person must make—a critical issue you have to resolve for yourself.
Related words
antonyms
have-not
Etimology
From have on (“to deceive”).
noun
have (plural haves)
(Australia, New Zealand, informal) A fraud or deception; something misleading.
Examples
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.