's

's¹

an ending used in writing to represent the possessive morpheme after most singular nouns, some plural nouns, esp. those not ending in a letter or combination of letters representing an s or z sound, noun phrases, and noun substitutes, as in man's, women's, baby's, James's, witness's, (or witness'), king of England's, or anyone's.

[ME -es, OE]

's²

1. contraction of is: She's here.

2. contraction of does: What's he do for a living now?

3. contraction of has: He's just gone.

Usage. See contraction.

's³

Archaic.

a contraction of God's, as in 'swounds; 'sdeath; 'sblood.

's⁴

a contraction of us, as in Let's go.

Usage. See contraction.

's⁵

a contraction of as, as in so's to get there on time.

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