have (got) to (do something)

have (got) to (do something)

Must; need to. You have to start trusting me, or else this relationship will never work. One of us has got to wash the dishes this weekend.See also: have

have to

Also, have got to. Be obliged to, must. For example, We have to go now, or He has got to finish the paper today. The use of have as an auxiliary verb to indicate obligation goes back to the 16th century; the variant using got dates from the mid-1800s. See also: have