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) (file)

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)

(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, 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)