have mercy
English
[edit]Verb
[edit]have mercy (third-person singular simple present has mercy, present participle having mercy, simple past and past participle had mercy)
- (usually in the imperative) To show mercy or compassion; to stop inflicting punishment or a barrage.
- Synonym: spare
- 1844 (date written), Charles Dickens, “Fourth Quarter”, in The Chimes: A Goblin Story of Some Bells that Rang an Old Year out and a New Year in, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1845, →OCLC, page 165:
- "I have learnt it!" cried the old man. "Oh, have mercy on me in this hour, if, in my love for her, so young and good, I slandered Nature in the breasts of mothers rendered desperate! Pity my presumption, wickedness, and ignorance, and save her!"
Translations
[edit]show mercy or compassion
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