Definition of "had"

had

/hæd/

verb
1. simple past and past participle of have
  Quotations
  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 July, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] T[homas] Egerton, […], page 1
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.
  Quotations
  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
3. (auxiliary, now rare) As past subjunctive: would have.
  Quotations
  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
  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 […]
  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
  CAESAR (smiling). Of course I had rather you stayed.
  1898, George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

Definition of "had"

had

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations