Definition of "have"

have¹

/hæv/

verb
third-person singular simple present has, present participle having, simple past and past participle had
1. (transitive) To possess, own.
2. (transitive) To hold, as something at someone's disposal.
3. (transitive) To include as a part, ingredient, or feature.
4. (transitive) Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject.
5. (transitive) To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink).
6. (transitive) To undertake or perform (an action or activity).
7. (transitive) To be scheduled to attend, undertake or participate in.
8. To experience, go through, undergo.
9. To be afflicted with, suffer from.
10. (auxiliary verb, taking a past participle) Used in forming the perfect aspect.
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.)
12. (auxiliary verb, taking a to-infinitive) See have to.
13. (transitive) To give birth to.
14. (informal, usually passive) To obtain.
  Quotations
  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 (lyrics and music), “You've Got Another Thing Comin'”, in Screaming for Justice, performed by Judas Priest, side 2, track 2
15. (transitive) To engage in sexual intercourse with.
  Quotations
  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, page 134
16. (transitive) To accept as a romantic partner.
17. (transitive with bare infinitive) To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
  Quotations
  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.
  2002, Matt Cyr, Something to Teach Me: Journal of an American in the Mountains of Haiti, Educa Vision, Inc., page 25
18. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To cause to be.
19. (transitive with bare infinitive) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.)
20. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To depict as being.
  Quotations
  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
21. (Britain, slang) To defeat in a fight; take.
22. (Britain, slang) To inflict punishment or retribution on.
23. (dated outside Ireland) To be able to speak (a language).
24. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
25. (informal, often passive) To trick, to deceive.
26. (transitive, in the negative, often in continuous tenses) To allow; to tolerate.
  Quotations
  “ 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!”
  1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter II, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, page 19
27. (transitive, often used in the negative) To believe, buy, be taken in by.
28. (transitive) To host someone; to take in as a guest.
29. (transitive) To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation.
30. (transitive, of a jury) To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case.
31. (transitive, birdwatching) To make an observation of (a bird species).
  Quotations
  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
32. (transitive) To capture or actively hold someone's attention or interest.
  Quotations
  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
noun
plural haves
1. (usually contrastive) A wealthy or privileged person.
  Quotations
  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
  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.
  2021 April 5, Laura Vozzella, “Charlottesville mayor says graphic poem illustrates Black experience in city”, in The Washington Post‎
2. (uncommon) One who has some (contextually specified) thing.
  Quotations
  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, ...
  2010, Simon Collin, Dictionary of Wine, A&C Black
  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 (a Caribbean term for a well-known sex position) and spanking tendencies during sexual activity ...
  2013, Kelda, Men Under a Microscope, Author House, page 57
  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.
  2014, Derek Prince, Ultimate Security: Finding a Refuge in Difficult Times, Whitaker House

have²

/hæv/

noun
plural haves
1. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) A fraud or deception; something misleading.
  Quotations
  "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

Definition of "have"

have1

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations

noun

Quotations

Quotations

have2

noun

Quotations

have¹

have²