Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Preterit and past participle of have, and as an auxiliary making pluperfect tense-phrases.
  • A variant of haud for hold.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • imperative, past participle See have.
  • imperative, past participle with a nominative and followed by the infinitive without to, are well established idiomatic forms. The original construction was that of the dative with forms of be, followed by the infinitive. See Had better, under Better.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of have.
  • verb auxiliary Used to form the pluperfect tense, expressing a completed action in the past (+ past participle).
  • verb auxiliary As past subjunctive: ‘would have’.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Given as a working premise that McKinney's death had been murder, it followed that the murderer _had _somehow lured him to an exact spot in the old friary.

    The Devil's Bedpost 2010

  • Those incoming congresscritters, and their successors, had/have a singular lack of wanting to gain the willing cooperation of those across the aisle. witness the threat of the so-called "nuclear option" which, at times, I almost wish they *had* exercised and that in their hubris named one of the most influential PACs the "committee for the permanent majority"

    Making Light: Open thread 134 2010

  • Another strange thing was that he had thought of the past; chronic prison day-dreamers dreamed nearly always of the future -- and of the past only as it might have been, never as it actually ~had~ been.

    Autumn Thomas Plastino Martin 2010

  • My vet had previously told us that Matu (pictured)  had arthritis in his back legs, and had even offered some glucosamine, a dietary supplement that is also taken by humans.

    Did glucosamine put a spring in my old cat’s step? 2010

  • June 13, 2009 at 2:57 am had a tortie for like 15 years…she was a different kind of girl..had a vet tell me once, they are all nuts, but i wonder why..she was a sweet girl and i loved her.

    i noes das mi baskit. - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2009

  • Being an old Russia hand, I had of course discounted their promise to get us back into the city by 3.30 - but I * had* made an appointment for 5 pm.

    Esther Dyson: Release 0.9: Simonyi launch tour - Baikonur 2008

  • I really feel this movie had potential keyword *had* They could of portray this movie in so many different directions and I feel that the producers lack the creative energy and are missing out on a great opportunity in what would be a fantastic film.

    Another Horrible Trailer for Fox's Dragonball Evolution - Updated! « FirstShowing.net 2008

  • If I hadn't known that I'd been there, I might not have noticed or recognized what I was seeing, but because I knew I *had* walked there and could remember how it felt to walk there, I could see the connection between what I was looking at and how I had walked there before. how tracking is like learning to read Japanese calligraphy

    tracking asakiyume 2007

  • For example, imagine a game world where the narrative required 50% female and 50% male players and that people had to play roles and someone *had* to be the princess and someone else the prince or the play didn't move along.

    Play What You Are 2007

  • But oh gawd, you had to link to the G333k post and I *had* to read it *and* the comments, some of which were incredibly stupid, I mean for geeks and all.

    Labor Day link smorgasboard | The Blog of Michael R. Eades, M.D. 2007

Comments

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  • The fact that John, where Joe had had "had had", had had "had", had had a greater effect.

    9 is the most I've ever heard.

    January 28, 2007

  • That's awesome!

    January 28, 2007

  • "I'm sorry, but I can't resist. The 'had had' sentence (John, where Mary

    had had "had" had had "had.") takes advantage of the use/mention

    distinction. Of course, you can mention other examples of mentioning, so

    you can create infinitely long sentences. Mark, where I had had "had had

    'had' had had 'had'" had had " had 'had' had had 'had.'"; extend this for

    as long as you like. Points off for incorrect punctuation."

    --Will Fitzgerald--Message 4 under "Parsing Challenges"

    P.S., Messages 1-3 by others are also fun.

    September 9, 2007

  • The fact that Oroboros, where Seanahan had had "had had "had had", had had "had", had had" had had "had had "had had", had had "had", had had", was terribly confusing. Really, we could play this game all night.

    September 9, 2007

  • Mercy!

    September 9, 2007

  • Y'all BEEN had! ;oD

    September 9, 2007

  • The more you say this word, the stranger it sounds. Kind of like "egg."

    October 4, 2007

  • The maximum sequence achievable using only uses is three: John had eaten more fairy cakes than Mary had had, had anyone stopped to count. It is possible (with a bit of grammatical legerdemain) that this could be exceeded in a sentence using the token 'that' (q.v.).

    August 5, 2008

  • John, you slack bastard, leave some fairy cakes for the rest of us!

    August 5, 2008

  • "What do we want of another breed? Isn't one breed enough? Had is had, and your tricking it out in a fresh way of spelling isn't going to make it any hadder than it was before; now you know that yourself."

    "But there is a distinction--they are not just the same Hads."

    "How do you make it out?"

    "Well, you use that first Had when you are referring to something that happened at a named and sharp and perfectly definite moment; you use the other when the thing happened at a vaguely defined time and in a more prolonged and indefinitely continuous way."

    'Why, doctor, it is pure nonsense; you know it yourself. Look here: If I have had a had, or have wanted to have had a had, or was in a position right then and there to have had a had that hadn't had any chance to go out hadding on account of this foolish discrimination which lets one Had go hadding in any kind of indefinite grammatical weather but restricts the other one to definite and datable meteoric convulsions, and keeps it pining around and watching the barometer all the time, and liable to get sick through confinement and lack of exercise, and all that sort of thing, why--why, the inhumanity of it is enough, let alone the wanton superfluity and uselessness of any such a loafing consumptive hospital-bird of a Had taking up room and cumbering the place for nothing. These finical refinements revolt me; it is not right, it is not honorable; it is constructive nepotism to keep in office a Had that is so delicate it can't come out when the wind's in the nor'west--I won't have this dude on the payroll. Cancel his exequator; and look here--"

    From Mark Twain's Italian with Grammar

    April 13, 2010

  • Wot, couldn't get his head around a pretty obvious distinction between perfective and imperfective verbs? Poor Marko.

    April 13, 2010

  • "had" in Hungarian means: army

    August 1, 2012