have

Meaning

1. To possess, own.
2. To hold, as something at someone's disposal.
3. To include as a part, ingredient, or feature.
4. Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject.
5. To consume or use up (a particular substance or resource, especially food or drink).
6. To undertake or perform (an action or activity).
7. To be scheduled to attend, undertake or participate in.
8. To experience, go through, undergo.
9. To be afflicted with, suffer from.
10. 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. See have to.
13. To give birth to.
14. (informal) To obtain.
15. To engage in sexual intercourse with.
16. To accept as a romantic partner.
17. To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
18. To cause to be.
19. To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.)
20. To depict as being.
21. (slang) To defeat in a fight; take.
22. (slang) To inflict punishment or retribution on.
23. To be able to speak (a language).
24. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
25. (informal) To trick, to deceive.
26. To allow; to tolerate.
27. To believe, buy, be taken in by.
28. To host someone; to take in as a guest.
29. To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation.
30. To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case.
31. To make an observation of (a bird species).
32. To capture or actively hold someone's attention or interest.
33. To grasp the meaning of; comprehend.

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/hæv/

Etymology

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. 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”).