what are you smoking
- idiom
- Offensive
:
¿Qué te has fumado?
- You seriously think that plan will work? What are you smoking?
Examples
-
Seriously, what are you smoking?
-
After hearing his plan, I couldn't help but ask, what are you smoking?
-
If you believe the boss will approve that budget, what are you smoking?
-
She wants to move to Mars next year—what are you smoking?
-
If you believe the boss will approve that budget, what are you smoking?
-
She wants to move to Mars next year—what are you smoking?
-
You seriously think that plan will work? What are you smoking?
Synonyms
84
8.6
To show surprise and criticism of a bad choice
To say someone has a very bad idea as if they are not thinking clearly
Antonyms
How Ridiculous
288
4.4
- Offensive
- Informal
20
4.4
13
7.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal meanings of the words ('what', 'are', 'you', 'smoking') point to asking about a substance, but the phrase is commonly used as a rhetorical, metaphorical question to express disbelief or question someone's reasoning. Because the intended sense relies on pragmatic/idiomatic knowledge that smoking implies altered judgment, a B1 learner who only knows the constituent words might sometimes guess the metaphorical use but would not reliably derive it without prior exposure.
Etymology
What are you smoking may come from the image of someone smoking a drug that changes their thinking; asking it is like asking if they are smoking something that makes them say 'crazy' things. So people use it to show strong disbelief or to question someone's thinking.