have

Etymology 1

From Middle English haven, from Old English hafian, 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. cognates Cognate with Saterland Frisian hääbe (“to have”), West Frisian hawwe (“to have”), Dutch hebben (“to have”), Afrikaans hê (“to have”), Low German hebben, hewwen (“to have”), German haben (“to have”), Danish have (“to have”), Swedish hava (“to have”), Norwegian Nynorsk ha (“to have”), Icelandic hafa (“to have”), Albanian kap (“I grab, catch, grip”), Latin capiō (“take”, verb), Russian хапать (xapatʹ, “to seize”).

verb

1. (transitive) To possess, own.
   I have a house and a car.
2. (transitive) 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? (not necessarily one's own key)
3. (transitive) 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.
   A government has three branches: the executive, legislative, and judicial.
   The movie has lots of action.
4. (transitive) 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.
   I have a really mean boss.
5. (transitive) 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!
   She's had more than enough time already.
6. (transitive) To undertake or perform (an action or activity).
   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.
7. (transitive) 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.
   I have a lot of work to do.
8. 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.
   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.
9. To be afflicted with, suffer from.
   He had a cold last week.
10. (auxiliary verb, taking a past participle) Used in forming the perfect aspect.
    I have already eaten today.
    I had already eaten.
    I will have left by the time you get here.
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.)
    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?
12. (auxiliary verb, taking a to-infinitive) See have to.
    I have to go.
13. (transitive) To give birth to.
    The couple always wanted to have children.
    My wife is having the baby right now!
    My mother had me when she was 25.
14. (informal, usually passive) To obtain.
    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' 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.
    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. 2008 January–February, “70 Ways to Improve Every Day of the Week”, in Men's Health, volume 23, number 1, →ISSN, page 134
16. (transitive) To accept as a romantic partner.
    Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
17. (transitive with bare infinitive) 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.
    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.
    He had him arrested for trespassing.
    The lecture’s ending had the entire audience in tears.
    Jim has his eyes closed.
19. (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.
20. (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. 3 May 2011, “Corrections and clarifications”, in The Guardian
21. (Britain, slang) To defeat in a fight; take.
    I could have him!
22. (Britain, slang) To inflict punishment or retribution on.
    You broke the window! Teacher’ll have you for that!
23. (dated outside Ireland) To be able to speak (a language).
    I have no German.
24. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
    Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
25. (informal, often passive) 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.
26. (transitive, in the negative, often in continuous tenses) 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.
27. (transitive, often used in the negative) 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.
28. (transitive) To host someone; to take in as a guest.
    Thank you for having me!
29. (transitive) 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.
30. (transitive, of a jury) 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.
31. (transitive, birdwatching) To make an observation of (a bird species).
    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.
    1977-1980, Lou Sullivan, personal diary, quoted in 2019, Ellis Martin, Zach Ozma (editors), We Both Laughed In Pleasure 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.

noun

1. (usually contrastive) A wealthy or privileged person.
   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. 2021-04-05, 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.
   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

Etymology 2

From have on (“to deceive”).

noun

1. (Australia, New Zealand, informal) A fraud or deception; something misleading.
   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. 14 November 2017, Joanna Davis, “Go with the flow in Abel Tasman National Park”, in stuff.co.nz