| 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. |
| 3. | eat humble pie, to be forced to apologize humbly; suffer humiliation: He had to eat humble pie and publicly admit his error. |
| 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.] |
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 Humble pie refers to a dish originally made from the innards of a deer.
