Emily Dickinson Lexicon

HAVE, v.t. [hav. pret. and pp. had. Indic. present, I have, thou hast, he has; we, ye, they have. Sax. habban; Goth. haban; G. haben; D. hebben; Sw. hafva; Dan. haver; L. habeo; Sp. haber; Port. haver. It. avere; Fr. avoir; W. hafiaw, to snatch or seize hastily, and hapiaw, to happen. The Spanish haber unites have with happen; haber, to have or possess, to take, to happen or befall. The primary sense then is to fall on, or to rush on and seize. See Happen. Class Gb, No. 74, 79.]

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.]