having

HAV-ing/ˈhævɪŋ/

6 meanings of having

Practice

1
verb
Present participle and gerund of have.
Having finished the report, she finally took a break.
Having a backup plan saved the entire expedition.
Note
The -ing form of have does two jobs. As a participle it opens perfect clauses such as having finished or having seen, which place one action before another. As a gerund it works as a noun, the subject or object of a sentence. The progressive sits easily with the action meanings (we're having lunch, having a party) but sounds odd with plain possession: say she owns a car, not she is having one.
2
noununcountable
The act of possessing or owning something; ownership.
The having of property comes with responsibilities as well as rights.
For him, the having of wealth meant security rather than luxury.
Similarpossession, ownership
Note
Philosophers lean on the countable form. Ronald Jager, writing on The Development of Bertrand Russell's Philosophy (2002), describes perceiving as a complex of "havings," not of "havings" and "doings": possessing set against acting. In ordinary prose the word usually appears in the frame the having of, which keeps the verb's force and presents ownership as a state someone is in.
3
noununcountable
Something a person owns; possessions, goods, or estate.
The old farmer's having amounted to little more than the land he tilled.
She refused to part with any of her having, however small.
Similarpossessions, property, belongings, goods, estate
Note
Literary English uses this sense in both numbers. In Shakespeare's Twelfe Night, "my having is not much" treats a person's whole store as a single mass. Tennyson's Queen Mary (1875) counts them instead: "your havings wasted by the scythe and spade." Both writers set the word against loss, whether half a coffer given away or an estate laid waste.

Less common meanings

4
nounobsoleteuncountable
A person's behavior; the manner in which someone conducts themselves.
Note
The word once named the way a person carried themselves, covering bearing as much as conduct. That use is obsolete, and a modern reader meeting it will expect possession, so behavior, conduct or bearing are the safe choices outside deliberate period writing. The Scottish "good manners" use later narrowed it to conduct that was polished.
5
adjectiveobsolete
Grasping and greedy; eager to acquire and hold on to wealth.
The having merchant would sooner starve than lend a coin.
The new man in Humanity, which is the communication of the Son of Man Who is the Interceder, is an asking man, although it is not a greedy and a having man.
1875, Christ and the people, sermons
Note
An adjective of acquisitiveness, still in use in 1875, when the sermons Christ and the People call the new man "an asking man, although it is not a greedy and a having man." The pairing with greedy fixes the sense, and the contrast with asking draws the line between wanting and grabbing. It compares with more and most, as in more having.
6
nounobsoleteScotlanduncountableplural
Good manners; refined and courteous behavior.
Note
Scottish usage gave the word a sense of approval, mostly in the plural: to have one's havings was to be well-mannered. The general "behavior" sense was neutral, describing conduct of any kind, while this one implies that the conduct was good. It shares that sense's obsolete standing.

having is a form of have

have, verb: To own or possess something, or to hold it or keep it with you or available for use. Full entry

Forms: havehas he/she/ithaving -ing formhad past tense, past participle
Spelling: have → having: drop the e, add -ing

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