humble pie

American  

noun

1. humility forced upon someone, often under embarrassing conditions; humiliation.

2. Obsolete. a pie made of the viscera and other inferior parts of deer or the like.

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idioms

1. eat humble pie, to be forced to apologize humbly; suffer humiliation.

   He had to eat humble pie and publicly admit his error.

humble pie British  

noun

1. (formerly) a pie made from the heart, entrails, etc, of a deer

2. to behave or be forced to behave humbly; be humiliated

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Etymology

Origin of humble pie

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

Example Sentences

A close ally of the president, MP Oscar Sudi, has taken to X to eat some humble pie, apologising to Catholic bishops on behalf of the government.

From BBC

And in the spirit of full disclosure, and before the reminders arrive and large portions of humble pie are thrown in this direction, one of the biggest doubters is right here and must admit to being wrong after witnessing Raya's finest night since arriving at Arsenal.

From BBC

He even tried a little humble pie.

From Seattle Times

Such a slice of humble pie coming from a chief executive is rare and a strong indication of Licht’s cloudy future at the network.

From Los Angeles Times

The term humble pie, for example, comes from pies made with umbles, or scraps of meat and offal that fed peasants who were seated far away from royalty at banquets.

From Seattle Times