had

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of "have".

   This morning I had an egg for breakfast.

2. 2
   verb

   Used with a past participle to talk about an action finished before another past action.

   I felt sure that I had seen him before.

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.

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