HAVE, v.t. hav. pret. and pp. had. Present, I have, thou hast, he has; we, ye, they, have. [L. habeo.]

1. To possess; to bold in possession or power. How many loaves have ye? Matth. xv. He that gathered much had nothing over. Ex. xvi. I have a Levite to my priest. Judges xvii. To have and to hold, terms in a deed of conveyance.
2. To possess, as something that is connected with, or belongs to one. Have ye a father? Have ye another brother? Gen. xliii and xliv. Sheep that have no shepherd. 1 Kings xxii.
3. To marry; to take for a wife or husband. In the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Math. xxii.
4. To hold; to regard. Thus, To have in honor, is to hold in esteem; to esteem; to honor. To have in derision or contempt, to hold in derision or contempt; to deride; to despise.
5. To maintain; to hold in opinion. Sometimes they will have them to be the natural heat; sometimes they will have them to be the qualities of the tangible parts. Bacon.
6. To be urged by necessity or obligation; to be under necessity, or impelled by duty. I have to visit twenty patients every day. We have to strive against temptations. We have to encounter strong prejudices. The nation has to pay the interest of an immense debt.
7. To seize and hold; to catch. The hound has him. [The original, but now a vulgar use of the word.]
8. To contain. The work has many beauties and many faults.
9. To gain; to procure; to receive; to obtain; to purchase. I had this cloth very cheap. He has a guinea a month. He has high wages for his services.
10. To bring forth, to produce, as a child. Had rather, denotes wish or preference. I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness. Ps. lxxiv. Is not this phrase a corruption of would rather? To have after, to pursue. [Not much used, nor elegant.] Shak. To have away, to remove; to take away. Tusser. To have at, to encounter; to assail; as, to have at him; to have at you. [Legitimate, but vulgar.] To enter into competition with; to make trial with. Shak. Dryden uses in a like sense, have with you; but these uses are inelegant. To have in, to contain. To have on, to wear; to carry, as raiment or weapons. He saw a man who had not on a wedding garment. Matth xxii. To have out, to cause to depart. 2 Sam. xiii. To have a care, to take care; to be on the guard, or to guard. To have pleasure, to enjoy. To have pain, to suffer. To have sorrow, to be grieved or afflicted. With would and should. He would have, he desires to have, or he requires. He should have, he ought to have. But the various uses of have in such phrases, and its uses as an auxiliary verb, are fully explained in grammars. As an auxiliary, it assists in forming the perfect tense, as I have formed, thou hast formed, he had or hath formed, we have formed; and the prior-past tense, as I had seen, thou hadst seen, he had seen. [“To have and to be. The distinction is marked in a beautiful sentiment of a German poet: – Hast thou any thing? Share it with me, and I will pay thee the worth of it. Art thou any thing? O then, let us exchange souls.” Dr. Southey's Omniana, i. 237. – EHB.]

1. To hold in possession or control; to own; as, he has a farm.
2. To possess, as something which appertains to, is connected with, or affects, one.
   
   

   The earth hath bubbles, as the water has. Shak.

   He had a fever late. Keats.

3. To accept possession of; to take or accept.
   
   

   Break thy mind to me in broken English; wilt thou have me? Shak.

4. To get possession of; to obtain; to get.
   
   
   Shak.
5. To cause or procure to be; to effect; to exact; to desire; to require.
   
   

   I had the church accurately described to me. Sir W. Scott.

   Wouldst thou have me turn traitor also? Ld. Lytton.

6. To bear, as young; as, she has just had a child.
7. To hold, regard, or esteem.
   
   

   Of them shall I be had in honor. 2 Sam. vi. 22.

8. To cause or force to go; to take.
   
   
   "The stars have us to bed." Herbert. "Have out all men from me." 2 Sam. xiii. 9.
9. To take or hold (one's self); to proceed promptly; -- used reflexively, often with ellipsis of the pronoun; as, to have after one; to have at one or at a thing, i. e., to aim at one or at a thing; to attack; to have with a companion.
   
   
   Shak.
10. To be under necessity or obligation; to be compelled; followed by an infinitive.
    
    

    Science has, and will long have, to be a divider and a separatist. M. Arnold.

    The laws of philology have to be established by external comparison and induction. Earle.

11. To understand.
    
    

    You have me, have you not? Shak.

12. To put in an awkward position; to have the advantage of; as, that is where he had him.
    
    
    [Slang]

    * Have, as an auxiliary verb, is used with the past participle to form preterit tenses; as, I have loved; I shall have eaten. Originally it was used only with the participle of transitive verbs, and denoted the possession of the object in the state indicated by the participle; as, I have conquered him, I have or hold him in a conquered state; but it has long since lost this independent significance, and is used with the participles both of transitive and intransitive verbs as a device for expressing past time. Had is used, especially in poetry, for would have or should have.

    Myself for such a face had boldly died. Tennyson.

    To have a care, to take care; to be on one's guard. -- To have (a man) out, to engage (one) in a duel. -- To have done (with). See under Do, v. i. -- To have it out, to speak freely; to bring an affair to a conclusion. -- To have on, to wear. - - To have to do with. See under Do, v. t.

    Syn. -- To possess; to own. See Possess.