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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

had en · VERB

Pronunciation

  • (General-American) audio
  • hăt had to
  • /hæt/ had to
  • /hæd/ strong form
  • /əd/ weak form
  • /həd/ weak form

Etymology

From Middle English hadde (preterite), yhad (past participle), from Old English hæfde (first and third person singular preterite), ġehæfd (past participle), from Proto-Germanic *habdaz, past and past participle stem of *habjaną (“to have”), equivalent to have + -ed. Cognate with Dutch had, German hatte, Swedish hade, Icelandic hafði.

Meanings

  1. (form-of, participle, past) simple past and past participle of have
    form of have
    • A good time was had by all.
    • About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton,[…]. 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 1:
    • This morning I had an egg for breakfast.
  2. (auxiliary, followed by a past participle) Used to form the past perfect tense, expressing an action that took place prior to a reference point that is itself in the past.
    • When I'd (already) done some exercise, I had a cappuccino.
    • Cooper seems an odd choice, but imagine if they had taken MTV's advice and chosen Robert Pattinson? 2011 April 15, Ben Cooper, The Guardian, London:
    • I felt sure that I had seen him before.
  3. (archaic, auxiliary) As past subjunctive: would have.
    • To holde myne honde, by God, I had grete payne; / For forthwyth there I had him slayne, / But that I drede mordre wolde come oute[…]. 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
    • CAESAR (smiling). Of course I had rather you stayed. 1898, George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra:
    • Had I not known you were coming this evening, I'd have left at midday.
    • If all was good and fair we met, / This earth had been the Paradise / It never look’d to human eyes / Since our first Sun arose and set. 1849, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam, section 24:
    • Julius Cæsar had escaped death, if going to the Senate-house, that day wherein he was murthered by the Conspirators, he had read a memorial which was presented unto him. 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 4, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

Deriveds

unhad · had better · chad · had best