humble pie


noun

humility forced upon someone, often under embarrassing conditions; humiliation.
Obsolete. a pie made of the viscera and other inferior parts of deer or the like.

Idioms for humble pie

    eat humble pie, to be forced to apologize humbly; suffer humiliation: He had to eat humble pie and publicly admit his error.

Origin of humble pie

1640–50; earlier phrase an umble pie, erroneous for a numble pie; see numbles

British Dictionary definitions for eat humble pie

humble pie

noun

(formerly) a pie made from the heart, entrails, etc, of a deer
eat humble pie to behave or be forced to behave humbly; be humiliated

Word Origin for humble pie

C17: earlier an umble pie, by mistaken word division from a numble pie, from numbles offal of a deer, from Old French nombles, ultimately from Latin lumbulus a little loin, from lumbus loin

Cultural definitions for eat humble pie

eat humble pie

To be forced to acknowledge one's deficiencies or errors: “Professor Norris had to eat humble pie when the reviewers pointed out numerous factual errors in his book.” Humble pie refers to a dish originally made from the innards of a deer.