to've

/təv/

contraction

to have (with to as infinitive)

“Nine o'clock. He ought to've arrived by now.”

Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

contraction
  1. contractionto have (with to as infinitive)

    Nine o'clock. He ought to've arrived by now.

    4 more examples

    "Lord, Paul! you ought to've sent an 'ailstone into that little black 'un."

    1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC

    I've met with some queer adventures, as you call them, in these woods too; some that I wouldn't have gone out arter if I'd known what they were to 've been afore I started.

    1857, Samuel H. Hammond, Wild northern scenes, page 166

    The fireplace is supposed to've been there since about 1900, so in an ideal world, we'd have old-white panelling and a dado.

    2006, Jane Stevenson, Good women: three novellas, page 25

    That damned thing had to've been fifteen hundred feet long by five hundred feet wide and over a hundred feet tall.

    2010, Arlen Blumhagen, Mount: A Mountain Man's Adventures

Origin

to + 've

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

to've. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to've

MLA

“to've.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to've. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “to've,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/to've.

Source: to've on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.