have


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have (oneself) (something)

To enjoy or indulge in something. I'm going to sit down in the shade and have myself a cold glass of lemonade.
See also: have

have an edge on

To be drunk. Do you remember last night at the bar at all? You really had an edge on.
See also: edge, have, on

have an edge on (someone or something)

To have an advantage over someone or something; to be in a more favorable position than someone or something else. I think I have an edge on her in the race because I've been training so much harder.
See also: edge, have, on

have an/the edge over (someone or something)

To have an advantage over one. I've been preparing for this debate for weeks so that I have the edge on my opponent.
See also: edge, have, over

have the edge on (someone or something)

To have an advantage over one. I've been preparing for this debate for weeks so that I have the edge on my opponent. Now that we have George, I think we definitely have the edge on the other team.
See also: edge, have, on

have

(someone) by the balls Vulgar Slang
To have control over someone; have someone at one's mercy.

have

/have got (someone's) back
To protect or shield someone from harm, loss, or danger.

have

/have got it all over
To be much better than (someone) at a particular endeavor.

have

/have got it in (one)
To have the capacity or disposition to (to do something).

have

/have got it in for
To act in a hostile manner toward or intend to harm (someone), especially because of a grudge.

have

/have got nothing on (someone)
1. To fail to be equal or superior to (someone) in a particular way.
2. To know or be able to prove information regarding (someone).

have

/keep (one's) nose to the grindstone
To work hard and steadily.

have

/keep (one's) fingers crossed
To hope for a successful or advantageous outcome.

have

/keep (one's) wits about (one)
To remain alert or calm, especially in a crisis.

have

/keep an ear to the ground
To be on the watch for new trends or information.

have

/speak with a forked tongue
To speak deceitfully; prevaricate or lie.

have

/take a whack at Informal
To try out; attempt.

have

/take pity on
To show compassion for.

have

/take the bit in one's teeth
To be uncontrollable; cast off restraint.
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References in classic literature ?
They each had the yellow fever fourteen times, and then resolved to try a little abstinence; since which period, they have been doing well.
Jingle; for both that person and Job Trotter became, in time, worthy members of society, although they have always steadily objected to return to the scenes of their old haunts and temptations.
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But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from going to the Brazils, but that really I did not know with whom to leave my effects behind me; so I resolved at last to go to England, where, if I arrived, I concluded that I should make some acquaintance, or find some relations, that would be faithful to me; and, accordingly, I prepared to go to England with all my wealth.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so I shall trouble you now with none of my land journals; but some adventures that happened to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must not omit.
It was about two hours before night when, our guide being something before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and after them a bear, from a hollow way adjoining to a thick wood; two of the wolves made at the guide, and had he been far before us, he would have been devoured before we could have helped him; one of them fastened upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with such violence, that he had not time, or presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily.
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I alluded to the advantages I had derived in my first rawness and ignorance from his society, and I confessed that I feared I had but ill repaid them, and that he might have done better without me and my expectations.
The Aged especially, might have passed for some clean old chief of a savage tribe, just oiled.
Miss Skiffins's composure while she did this was one of the most remarkable sights I have ever seen, and if I could have thought the act consistent with abstraction of mind, I should have deemed that Miss Skiffins performed it mechanically.
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And thus Van Baerle was to have the most admirably fitted aspect, and, besides, a large, airy, and well ventilated chamber where to preserve his bulbs and seedlings; while he, Boxtel, had been obliged to give up for this purpose his bedroom, and, lest his sleeping in the same apartment might injure his bulbs and seedlings, had taken up his abode in a miserable garret.
Boxtel, then, was to have next door to him a rival and successful competitor; and his rival, instead of being some unknown, obscure gardener, was the godson of Mynheer Cornelius de Witt, that is to say, a celebrity.
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We have further to suppose, but this is no difficulty, that after hexagonal prisms have been formed by the intersection of adjoining spheres in the same layer, she can prolong the hexagon to any length requisite to hold the stock of honey; in the same way as the rude humble-bee adds cylinders of wax to the circular mouths of her old cocoons.
The bees instantly began on both sides to excavate little basins near to each other, in the same way as before; but the ridge of wax was so thin, that the bottoms of the basins, if they had been excavated to the same depth as in the former experiment, would have broken into each other from the opposite sides.
Considering how flexible thin wax is, I do not see that there is any difficulty in the bees, whilst at work on the two sides of a strip of wax, perceiving when they have gnawed the wax away to the proper thinness, and then stopping their work.
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This would make his position more secure and durable, as it has made that of the Turk in Greece, who, notwithstanding all the other measures taken by him for holding that state, if he had not settled there, would not have been able to keep it.
A prince does not spend much on colonies, for with little or no expense he can send them out and keep them there, and he offends a minority only of the citizens from whom he takes lands and houses to give them to the new inhabitants; and those whom he offends, remaining poor and scattered, are never able to injure him; whilst the rest being uninjured are easily kept quiet, and at the same time are anxious not to err for fear it should happen to them as it has to those who have been despoiled.
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