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; see numbles

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

humble pie

Sir Nick Faldo says LIV golfers seeking a return to the DP World Tour may have to "eat a bit of humble pie" before regaining eligibility for the European-based circuit.

From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026

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 ● May 8, 2023

Two central banks that had said they saw no need for rate hikes until 2023 or 2024 have eaten humble pie in the space of a week.

From Reuters ● May 3, 2022

“I think the universe was like, ‘OK, all right, let’s have some humble pie here,’” Perry says now.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2020

Is there a man here in N'York with as much humble pie in his mouth as I've got?

From '?19,000' by Burford Delannoy

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