English

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Etymology

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would +‎ -n't +‎ -'ve

Pronunciation

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Contraction

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wouldn't've

  1. (colloquial) Contraction of would not have.
    • 1936, Eugene Morehead Armfield, Where the Weak Grow Strong, page 115:
      Anyway, my Daddy said if you wasn’t such a coward, trying to haze that boy with a big bunch of others, you wouldn’t’ve got shot in the first place []
    • 1950, Irwin Shaw, Mixed Company: Collected Short Stories of Irwin Shaw, page 276:
      [] if there had been a man around, taking hold of things, her father’s partner wouldn’t’ve been able to get away with most of the estate the way he did…
    • 1983, Elias Canetti, Comedy of Vanity and Life-Terms, page 47:
      I didn’t bring him here. If you wouldn’t have gone out, I wouldn’t have either. I’d have thrown him out right away. He wouldn’t’ve made it through the door.
    • 2006 October, Goff Morgan, "We Wouldn't've Had To Do It" (poem).

Synonyms

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See also

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