have it

present singular third person has it · participle present having it · participle past had it · past had it

1. To state or hold as true; to insist.

   He'll have it that I am maliciously misleading him.

   2 more examples

   Conventional wisdom has it that heat rises, but in fact heat diffuses: hot air rises.

   Yet he was kidnapped and "taken for a ride" in the fashion which Al Capone did so much to popularize in Chicago; and one story has it that he was shot only because the rope with which he was to have been hanged did not arrive in time.

   1936, The Elevator Constructor, volume 33, page 38

   Synonyms: hold

2. To buy: to purchase.

   Twenty quid, you say? Yes, we'll have it, thank you.

   1 more example

   (Well, for only twenty quid, we're having it all day long, aren't we?)

3. To accept (an excuse, a behavior, etc); to believe.

   He tried to make excuses but she wouldn't have it / was not having it / was having none of it.

   2 more examples

   Like her growing mid section, the stone was bulging in the middle. She had seen it as she walked out of Ngozi's palace. Ngozi had grilled her about who the father of her baby was, since she was known to be unmarried. Uzo'ma had insisted on keeping the identity of the father secret and Ngozi was not having it.

   2010, Nduka Onwuegbute, Masters of the Confluence, page 19

   Sullivan wasn’t having it.

   2015 September 9, Todd Leopold, “Band unhappy with use of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ for Kim Davis”, in CNN, archived from the original on 27 May 2023

   Synonyms: buy it

4. To be the object of ridicule, rebuke, critique, etc.

   Near-synonym: get it

   1 more example

   "Well, I expect you are going to let us have it," he laughed. "We are used to it Mr. Malone. We don't mind. But you will see the turn some day. These articles may rise up in judgement." "I will treat it fairly, I assure you." "Well, we ask no more."

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019

   Synonyms: get it

5. To possess some desirable quality or ability; to be all that.

   I was nervous about her performing on stage, but after all these years, she still has it.

   1 more example

   I was nervous about her performing on stage, but after all these years, she’s still got it. [alloform]