have another think coming

English

Alternative forms

• have another guess coming, have another thing coming, have another think a-comin, have another thought coming

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

have another think coming (third-person singular simple present has another think coming, present participle having another think coming, simple past and past participle had another think coming)

1. (idiomatic) To be deluded, to be mistaken; to need to rethink something one has determined; to need to reconsider one's plans or expectations.

   If you think you're going to marry my daughter, you have another think coming.

Usage notes

• This expression is used as a rebuke, often in constructions similar to "If X thinks that Y, he/she has another think coming!" Sometimes the word got is included, in the familiar constructions has got and have got, as "(someone)'s got another think coming", "they've/you've got another think coming".
• The form to have another thing coming is often seen, and may have been aided by a mishearing of the /k/ of think blended with the /k/ of coming, making think sound like thing.
• Another common colloquial pronunciation in the US sounds like have another think a-comin'.

Quotations

• 1901, Wallace Irwin, The Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum, section VIII:

  My finish then less clearly do I see, / For lo ! I have another think a-coming.

• 1918, Jacob Marvin Rudy, Our Nation's Peril, page 132:

  ...and if you think just because we are at war I'm going to give my brains an opiate or send them away on a vacation, you got another think a comin'. I wasn't built that way.

• 1950, Conrad Richter, The Fields, page 72:

  But if she figured she could break him, she had another think a coming.

• 1967, Sylvia Wilkinson, A Killing Frost, page 47:

  I told them they had another think a-coming if they thought they could talk me down like they did Papa, and they could just pack themselves right off my...

• 1984, James Purdy, On Glory's Course, page 252:

  He had another think a-coming, that begrimed whoremonger!

Translations

be deluded

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 大錯特錯／大错特错 (zh) (dàcuòtècuò)

• Danish: tro om igen
• Finnish: erehtyä (fi), muuttaa suunnitelmia
• French: se faire des films (fr), se mettre le doigt dans l’œil (fr), se faire des idées (fr)
• Italian: sbagliarsi di grosso, meglio che ci ripensi, pensaci due volte
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Serbo-Croatian: varati se impf
• Spanish: llevarlo claro (Spain, colloquial)

See also

• get real
• guess again!
• think again