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Synonyms

bitter pill

American  

noun

  1. a distressing experience or result that is hard to accept (often in the expressiona bitter pill to swallow ).

    Being passed over for promotion was a bitter pill to swallow.


Example Sentences

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See Examples For:

All of this is a rather bitter pill for working women, particularly mothers.

From The Wall Street Journal Jul. 8, 2026

The fact that he will go down now in history as Labour's shortest-serving prime minister will be a bitter pill for him to swallow.

From BBC Jun. 22, 2026

“This will be a bitter pill to swallow,” SGH Macro’s Duy said.

From MarketWatch Mar. 23, 2026

For USC, it was an especially bitter pill to swallow, considering how well things had started.

From Los Angeles Times Feb. 28, 2026

Given that Russia was at this point at the very vanguard of modernism it was a bitter pill to swallow, and understandably so.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

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