have.
To possess, own.
Meaning & usage
To possess, own.
I have a house and a car.
To hold, as something at someone's disposal.
Look what I have here—a frog I found on the street!
Do you have the key?
To include as a part, ingredient, or feature.
The stove has a handle. The shirt has sleeves.
The words cow and dog have three letters.
Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject.
I have two sisters.
She doesn’t have any friends.
To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink).
I have breakfast at six o'clock.
You've already had five drinks!
To undertake or perform (an action or activity).
Can I have a look at that?
He's having a tantrum about it.
To be scheduled to attend, undertake or participate in.
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.
To experience, go through, undergo.
We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that.
He had surgery on his hip yesterday.
To be afflicted with, suffer from.
He had a cold last week.
Used in forming the perfect aspect.
I have already eaten today.
Mom's gone real mad, she has.
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.)
They haven’t eaten dinner yet, have they?
Your wife hasn’t been reading that nonsense, has she?
See have to.
I have to go.
To give birth to.
The couple always wanted to have children.
My wife is having the baby right now!
To obtain.
The substance you describe can't be had at any price.
To engage in sexual intercourse with.
He’s always bragging about how many women he’s had.
To accept as a romantic partner.
Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
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.
To cause to be.
He had him arrested for trespassing.
I'd better have my watch repaired today: tomorrow I have to have my hair cut before having pictures taken for my passport.
To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is a small clause.)
The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week.
I’ve had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.
To depict as being.
Their stories differed; he said he’d been at work when the incident occurred, but her statement had him at home that entire evening.
To defeat in a fight; take.
I could have him!
To inflict punishment or retribution on.
You broke the window! Teacher’ll have you for that!
To be able to speak (a language).
I have no German.
To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
To trick, to deceive.
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.
To allow; to tolerate.
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.
To believe, buy, be taken in by.
I made up an excuse as to why I was out so late, but my wife wasn't having any of it.
To host someone; to take in as a guest.
Thank you for having me!
To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation.
What do you have for problem two?
I have two contacts on my scope.
To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case.
We’ll schedule closing arguments for Thursday, and the jury will have the case by that afternoon.
To make an observation of (a bird species).
To capture or actively hold someone's attention or interest.
To grasp the meaning of; comprehend.
Ah! Now I have it!
To be (an age).
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-der. Proto-Germanic *habjaną Proto-West Germanic *habbjan Old English habban Middle English haven English have 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 *kapyéti, an imperfective formation to the root *kap- (“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. The nonstandard etymology 1, verb sense 34 (“to be (an age)”) is a semantic loan from other languages’ term for “to possess, own”, such as French avoir, Polish mieć, and Spanish tener. Cognates Cognate with Scots hae (“to have”), North Frisian haa, heewe (“to have”), Saterland Frisian häbe, hääbe (“to have”), West Frisian hawwe (“to have”), Afrikaans hê (“to have”), Alemannic German haa, heen, hoh, hä, häbä, hè (“to have”), Bavarian hobm, hobn, hoom, håbn (“to have”), Cimbrian haban, hen, håm (“to have”), Dutch and Low German hebben (“to have”), German haben (“to have”), Limburgish haane, höbbe (“to have”), Luxembourgish hunn (“to have”), Mòcheno hom (“to have”), Vilamovian hon (“to have”), Yiddish האָבן (hobn, “to have”), Danish have (“to have”), Elfdalian åvå (“to have”), Faroese hava (“to have”), Icelandic hafa (“to have”), Norwegian Bokmål ha (“to have”), Norwegian Nynorsk ha, hava, have, hå (“to have”), Swedish ha, hafva, hava (“to have”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban, “to have”), Albanian kap (“to grab, catch, grip”), Latin capiō (“take”, verb), Russian хапать (xapatʹ, “to seize”).
A wealthy or privileged person.
One who has some (contextually specified) thing.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap-der. Proto-Germanic *habjaną Proto-West Germanic *habbjan Old English habban Middle English haven English have 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 *kapyéti, an imperfective formation to the root *kap- (“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. The nonstandard etymology 1, verb sense 34 (“to be (an age)”) is a semantic loan from other languages’ term for “to possess, own”, such as French avoir, Polish mieć, and Spanish tener. Cognates Cognate with Scots hae (“to have”), North Frisian haa, heewe (“to have”), Saterland Frisian häbe, hääbe (“to have”), West Frisian hawwe (“to have”), Afrikaans hê (“to have”), Alemannic German haa, heen, hoh, hä, häbä, hè (“to have”), Bavarian hobm, hobn, hoom, håbn (“to have”), Cimbrian haban, hen, håm (“to have”), Dutch and Low German hebben (“to have”), German haben (“to have”), Limburgish haane, höbbe (“to have”), Luxembourgish hunn (“to have”), Mòcheno hom (“to have”), Vilamovian hon (“to have”), Yiddish האָבן (hobn, “to have”), Danish have (“to have”), Elfdalian åvå (“to have”), Faroese hava (“to have”), Icelandic hafa (“to have”), Norwegian Bokmål ha (“to have”), Norwegian Nynorsk ha, hava, have, hå (“to have”), Swedish ha, hafva, hava (“to have”), Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌽 (haban, “to have”), Albanian kap (“to grab, catch, grip”), Latin capiō (“take”, verb), Russian хапать (xapatʹ, “to seize”).
A fraud or deception; something misleading.
They advertise it as a great deal, but I think it's a bit of a have.
Where this word comes from
From have on (“to deceive”).
A hawthorn.
Where this word comes from
Variant of haw.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.