Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One enjoying little or no material wealth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun singular variant of have nots.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person with few or no possessions

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Articles such as "Our Two-Class System" and "Rationing College Opportunity" point to the growing problem of a have and have-not system of American higher education.

    Trends/Forecasts 2009

  • Now, P&G executives say many of its former middle-market shoppers are trading down to lower-priced goods—widening the pools of have and have-not consumers at the expense of the middle.

    As Middle Class Shrinks, P&G Aims High and Low Ellen Byron 2011

  • But in a season when we are surrounded by so much, by a superabundance of plenty of everything, it's good to know that a relatively modest investment of time and money can move someone whom the world has dealt a massively unfair hand from the have-not side of the ledger to the have side.

    Maria Rodale: BikeTown Africa: Transforming Rwanda Maria Rodale 2011

  • Predictions for the rest of the world included warnings that emerging economies in China and India would use their funding for a larger share of the available fuel ramping up gas-station prices in the U.S. to world levels of $7 a gallon and higher, and that have-not Third World nations would face desperate food-production and other calamities.

    Andrew Kreig: Peak Oil Experts Fear Big New U.S. Job Losses, Economic Downturn Andrew Kreig 2010

  • In fact, along those very same lines, there is a reason libertarian views are never advanced by those who have actually seen de facto segregation or who have ever been on the “have-not” side of the aisle.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Public Opinion, Anti-Discrimination Law, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 2010

  • But in a season when we are surrounded by so much, by a superabundance of plenty of everything, it's good to know that a relatively modest investment of time and money can move someone whom the world has dealt a massively unfair hand from the have-not side of the ledger to the have side.

    Maria Rodale: BikeTown Africa: Transforming Rwanda Maria Rodale 2011

  • In the have and have-not society of golden-age Athens, wallowing in luxury and public ostentation became a pivot for societal change, as the statesman Pericles suggested such showiness was ultimately not worthy of the Greeks, and altogether more a Persian way of carrying on.

    TV highlights 27/06/2011 2011

  • She did after all, really blow it in the have/have-not competition and we all know she's playing both sides.

    Big Brother Recap: Veto Competition/Ceremony 5 2011

  • In the have and have-not society of golden-age Athens, wallowing in luxury and public ostentation became a pivot for societal change, as the statesman Pericles suggested such showiness was ultimately not worthy of the Greeks, and altogether more a Persian way of carrying on.

    TV highlights 27/06/2011 2011

  • "Today's fund-raising market is a have and have-not market," said Christopher Douvos , co-head of private-equity investing for the Investment Fund for Foundations, an organization that invests in venture-capital funds on behalf of nonprofits.

    A Have and Have-Not Venture World Pui-Wing Tam 2011

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