had

Meanings

verb

participlepastsimple past and past participle of have
A good time was had by all.
2 more examples
This morning I had an egg for breakfast.
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
auxiliaryUsed to form the past perfect tense, expressing an action that took place prior to a reference point that is itself in the past.
I felt sure that I had seen him before.
2 more examples
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
archaicauxiliaryAs past subjunctive: would have.
Had I not known you were coming this evening, I'd have left at midday.
4 more examples
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 […], →OCLC
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

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see

Origin

Proto-Germanic*habdaz
Old Englishhæfde
Middle Englishhadde
Englishhad

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.