to've
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Contraction
[edit]to've
- to have (with to as infinitive)
- 1847 March 30, Herman Melville, Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas; […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:
- "Lord, Paul! you ought to've sent an 'ailstone into that little black 'un."
- 1857, Samuel H. Hammond, Wild northern scenes, page 166:
- 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.
- 2006, Jane Stevenson, Good women: three novellas, page 25:
- 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.
- 2010, Arlen Blumhagen, Mount: A Mountain Man's Adventures:
- That damned thing had to've been fifteen hundred feet long by five hundred feet wide and over a hundred feet tall.