Word.ws English Dictionary

see coming

see coming verb: to notice in advance, especially to recognise as a threat or problem; to foresee.

Verb

see coming (third-person singular simple present sees coming, present participle seeing coming, simple past saw coming, past participle seen coming)

  1. (informal, person, or occurrence) To notice in advance, especially to recognise as a threat or problem; to foresee.
    • You're a perfect hitman; you look like a regular guy. Nobody sees you coming.
    • My pension plan went broke. I didn't see that development coming.
  2. (informal) To recognise (someone) as a potential victim to swindle or otherwise deceive.
    • You were charged $1,000 for a car wash? They must have seen you coming!
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see coming.
    • The foul ball hit me on the head. I didn't see it coming.

Forms of see coming

third-person singular presentsees coming
present participleseeing coming
pastsaw coming
past participleseen coming

Questions about see coming

What does see coming mean?
See coming means to notice in advance, especially to recognise as a threat or problem; to foresee.
What part of speech is see coming?
See coming is a verb.
What is the past tense of see coming?
The past tense of see coming is saw coming.

Words near see coming in the dictionary

  1. see an argument
  2. see and be seen
  3. see beyond
  4. see beyond the end of one's nose
  5. see beyond the tip of one's nose
  6. see coming
  7. see daylight
  8. see dollar signs
  9. see double
  10. see eye to eye
  11. see fit

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: see coming (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “see coming.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/see_coming. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.