eat humble pie
In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.
Meaning · English
Make a humble apology.
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Richmond coach, Kevin Boroevich, will have to eat some humble pie at training after being sent off for punching in the 21–15 win in a friendly against Fylde.
The Midlanders have been eating humble pie this season, though they deserve better fare.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Figurative class: Metaphor (PIE-English corpus, CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-31).
Common questions
What does “eat humble pie” mean?
Make a humble apology.
Is “eat humble pie” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.