English dictionary

having

verb

Pronunciation

/ˈhævɪŋ/

Audio pronunciation

Parts of speech

verb noun adjective

Definitions

verb

  1. To possess, own.
  2. To hold, as something at someone's disposal.
  3. Used to state the existence or presence of someone in a specified relationship with the subject.
  4. To partake of (a particular substance, especially food or drink, or action or activity).
  5. To be scheduled to attend, undertake or participate in.
  6. To experience, go through, undergo.
  7. To be afflicted with, suffer from.
  8. (auxiliary verb, taking a past participle) Used in forming the perfect aspect.
  9. 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.)
  10. (auxiliary verb, taking a to-infinitive) See have to.
  11. To give birth to.
  12. To engage in sexual intercourse with.
  13. To accept as a romantic partner.
  14. (transitive with bare infinitive) To cause to, by a command, request or invitation.
  15. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To cause to be.
  16. (transitive with bare infinitive) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.)
  17. (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement) To depict as being.
  18. To defeat in a fight; take.
  19. (obsolete outside Ireland) To be able to speak (a language).
  20. To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
  21. To trick, to deceive.
  22. (often with present participle) To allow; to tolerate.
  23. (often used in the negative) To believe, buy, be taken in by.
  24. To host someone; to take in as a guest.
  25. To get a reading, measurement, or result from an instrument or calculation.
  26. (of a jury) To consider a court proceeding that has been completed; to begin deliberations on a case.
  27. To make an observation of (a bird species).

noun

  1. The act of possessing; ownership.
  2. Something owned; possession; goods; estate.
  3. A person's behaviour.
  4. (chiefly in the plural) Good manners.

adjective

  1. Grasping; greedy.

Example sentences

I have a house and a car.
Do you have the key? (not necessarily one's own key)
I have a really mean boss.
Can I have a look at that?
Fred won't be able to come to the party; he has a meeting that day.
He had surgery on his hip yesterday.
He had a cold last week.
I had already eaten.
They haven't eaten dinner yet, have they?
I have to go.
My mother had me when she was 25.
He's always bragging about how many women he's had.
Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
They had me feed their dog while they were out of town.
He had him arrested for trespassing.
I've had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.
Their stories differed; he said he'd been at work when the incident occurred, but her statement had him at home that entire evening.
I could have him!
I have no German.
Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke.
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.
I made up an excuse as to why I was out so late, but my wife wasn't having any of it.
Thank you for having me!
I have two contacts on my scope.
We'll schedule closing arguments for Thursday, and the jury will have the case by that afternoon.

Synonyms

have one's way with sleep with take
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