where've

American  

[wairv, hwairv, wair-uhv, hwair-] / wɛərv, ʰwɛərv, ˈwɛər əv, ˈʰwɛər- /

1. contraction of where have: Where've you seen this before?

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Usage

See contraction.

Example Sentences

A reply quickly follows by voicenote: "Girl, where've you been? We've had one every day for the past two weeks."

From BBC • Jan. 14, 2024

"He's worried about losing the internal-combustion auto jobs — dude, where've you been?"

From Salon • Oct. 21, 2022

Garban read the grand jury report after the meeting and regretted not reading it sooner: “It was like, ‘Oh my God, Steve, where’ve you been?’

From New York Times • Jan. 19, 2012

Green is made of yellow and blue, nothing else, but when you look at green, where’ve the yellow and the blue gone?

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell

Then he added untruthfully: "He said he thought he knew all the big men in his line, and where've you been that he hasn't heard of you?"

From Space Tug by Leinster, Murray