Have

Pronunciation

• stressed IPA: /hæv/
• unstressed IPA: /(h)É™v/
• (have to) IPA: /hæf/
• Rhymes: -æv

Origin

From Middle English haven, from Old English habban, hafian ("to have"), from Proto-Germanic *habjaną ("to have"), durative of Proto-Germanic *habjaną ("to lift, take up"), from Proto-Indo-European *keh₂p- ("to take, seize, catch"). Cognate with West Frisian hawwe ("to have"), Dutch hebben ("to have"), Low German hebben, hewwen ("to have"), German haben ("to have"), Danish have ("to have"), Swedish hava ("to have"), Icelandic hafa ("to have"), Latin capiō ("take", verb.), Russian хапать (khapat', "to seize"). More at heave.

Since there is no common Indo-European root for a transitive possessive verb have (notice that Latin "habeo" is not 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, cf. Latin mihi est
sunt, literally to me is
are.

Internal Reconstruction in Indo-European: Methods, Results, and Problems

Full definition of have

Verb

1. (transitive) To possess, own, hold.I have a house and a car.Look what I have here — a frog I found on the street!
2. (transitive) To be related in some way to (with the object identifying the relationship).I have two sisters.The dog down the street has a lax owner.
3. (transitive) To partake of a particular substance (especially a food or drink) or action.I have breakfast at six o'clock.Can I have a look at that?I'm going to have some pizza and a beer right now.
4. (auxiliary verb, taking a past participle) Used in forming the Perfect aspect and the past perfect aspect.I have already eaten today.I had already eaten.
5. (auxiliary verb, taking a w, Infinitive, to-infinitive) must.I have to go.Note: there's a separate entry for have to.
6. (transitive) To give birth to.The couple always wanted to have children.My wife is having the baby right now!
7. (transitive) To engage in sexual intercourse with.He's always bragging about how many women he's had.
8. (transitive with bare infinitive) To cause to, by a command or request.They had me feed their dog while they were out of town.
9. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To cause to be.He had him arrested for trespassing.The lecture's ending had the entire audience in tears.
10. (transitive with bare infinitive) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.)The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week.I've had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.
11. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) 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.Anton Rogan, 8, was one of the runners-up in the Tick Tock Box short story competition, not Anton Rogers as we had it. — The Guardian.
12. Used as interrogative auxiliary verb with a following pronoun to form tag questions. (For further discussion, see "Usage notes" below)We haven't eaten dinner yet, have we?Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she?(UK usage) He has some money, hasn't he?
13. (British, slang) To defeat in a fight; take.I could have him!I'm gonna have you!
14. (Irish) To be able to speak a language.I have no German
15. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
16. To be afflicted with, to suffer from, to experience something negativeHe had a cold last week.We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that.
17. To trick, to deceiveYou had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke.
18. (transitive, often with present participle) To allow
• 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 2"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!"

Usage notes

Interrogative auxiliary verb

have ...? (third-person singular has ...?, third-person singular negative hasn't ...? or has ... not?, negative for all other persons, singular and plural haven't ...? or have ... not?); in each case, the ellipsis stands for a pronoun

Used with a following pronoun to form tag questions after statements that use "have" to form the perfect tense or (in UK usage) that use "have" in the present tense.

“

We haven't eaten dinner yet, have we?

”

“

Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she?

”

“

I'd bet that student hasn't studied yet, have they?

”

“

You've known all along, haven't you?

”

“

The sun has already set, has it not?

”

(UK usage)

“

He has some money, hasn't he?

” (see usage notes below)

This construction forms a tag that converts a present perfect tense sentence into a question. The tag always uses an object pronoun substituting for the subject. Negative sentences use has or have, distinguished by number. Affirmative sentences use the same followed by not, or alternatively, more commonly, and less formally, hasn't or haven't. (See ).

In American usage, this construction does not apply to present tense sentences with has or have, or their negations, as a verb; it does not apply either to the construction "have got". In those cases, use "does" or its negation instead. For example: "He has some money, doesn't he?" and "I have got enough time, don't I?" These constructions with "do", "does", "don't" or "doesn't" are considered incorrect in UK usage.

Derived terms