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eat humble pie - 4 dictionary results

eat

  [eet] verb, ate [eyt; especially Brit. et] or (Archaic) eat [et, eet] ; eat⋅en or (Archaic) eat [et, eet] ; eat⋅ing; noun
Use eat humble pie in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to take into the mouth and swallow for nourishment; chew and swallow (food).
2. to consume by or as if by devouring gradually; wear away; corrode: The patient was eaten by disease and pain.
3. to make (a hole, passage, etc.), as by gnawing or corrosion.
4. to ravage or devastate: a forest eaten by fire.
5. to use up, esp. wastefully; consume (often fol. by up): Unexpected expenses have been eating up their savings.
6. to absorb or pay for: The builder had to eat the cost of the repairs.
7. Slang: Vulgar. to perform cunnilingus or fellatio on.
–verb (used without object)
8. to consume food; take a meal: We'll eat at six o'clock.
9. to make a way, as by gnawing or corrosion: Acid ate through the linoleum.
–noun
10. eats, Informal. food.
—Verb phrases
11. eat away or into, to destroy gradually, as by erosion: For eons, the pounding waves ate away at the shoreline.
12. eat out, to have a meal at a restaurant rather than at home.
13. eat up,
a. to consume wholly.
b. to show enthusiasm for; take pleasure in: The audience ate up everything he said.
c. to believe without question.
—Idioms
14. be eating someone, Informal. to worry, annoy, or bother: Something seems to be eating him—he's been wearing a frown all day.
15. eat crow. crow 1 (def. 7).
16. eat high off the hog. hog (def. 9).
17. eat humble pie. humble pie (def. 3).
18. eat in, to eat or dine at home.
19. eat one's heart out. heart (def. 24).
20. eat one's terms. term (def. 17).
21. eat one's words. word (def. 15).
22. eat out of one's hand. hand (def. 49).
23. eat someone out of house and home, to eat so much as to strain someone's resources of food or money: A group of hungry teenagers can eat you out of house and home.
24. eat someone's lunch, Slang. to thoroughly defeat, outdo, injure, etc.
25. eat the wind out of, Nautical. to blanket (a sailing vessel sailing close-hauled) by sailing close on the weather side of.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME eten, OE etan; c. G essen, Goth itan, L edere

Related forms:
eater, noun

humble pie

 
–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.
—Idiom
3. eat humble pie, to be forced to apologize humbly; suffer humiliation: He had to eat humble pie and publicly admit his error.
Origin:
1640–50; earlier phrase an umble pie, erroneous for a numble pie; see numbles
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To eat humble pie
humble pie  
n.  A pie formerly made from the edible organs of a deer or hog.

[Alteration (influenced by humble) of obsolete umble pie : Middle English umbles, edible animal organs (variant of numbles, from Norman French nombles, from Old French, loin of veal, probably from alteration of Latin lumbulus, diminutive of lumbus, loin) + pie1.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source

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.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
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