Synonyms

have it coming

Idioms

Deserve what one receives, as in You may not like being reprimanded, but you have to admit you had it coming, or When he won the Nobel Prize, everyone said he'd had it coming for a long time. [c. 1900]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It feels dirty, but also delicious – after all, the guys who buy it really, really have it coming.

From Salon

Unloading your pent-up ire on someone is never right, not even if they have it coming, we're told.

From Salon

It’s those who, well, have it coming to them.

From New York Times

Colleagues agreed that the trio had it coming, deserving this reckoning for overthrowing reality as we know it.

From Scientific American

Would the people who tended to Sam say that he had it coming too, based on the contents of his pockets?

From Salon

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023