Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - got

Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. Got is the past tense and past participle of get. 2. You use have got to say that someone has a particular thing, or to mention a quality or characteristic that someone or something has. In informal American English, people sometimes just use ‘got’. (SPOKEN) I’ve got a coat just like this... She hasn’t got a work permit... Have you got any ideas?... Every city’s got its good and bad points... After a pause he asked, ‘You got any identification?’ = have PHRASE: have inflects, PHR n 3. You use have got to when you are saying that something is necessary or must happen in the way stated. In informal American English, the ‘have’ is sometimes omitted. (SPOKEN) I’m not happy with the situation, but I’ve just got to accept it... There has got to be a degree of flexibility... See, you got to work very hard. = must PHRASE 4. People sometimes use have got to in order to emphasize that they are certain that something is true, because of the facts or circumstances involved. In informal American English, the ‘have’ is sometimes omitted. (SPOKEN) We’ll do what we got to do. = must PHRASE c darkgreen]emphasis