to eat humble pie
Preserved but no longer current.
To come down from a position you have assumed; to be obliged to take SL lower room." Here "humble" is a pun on umble, the umbles being the heart, liver, and entrails of the deer, the huntsman's perquisites. When the lord and his household dined the venison pasty was served on the dais, but the umbles were made into a pie for the huntsman and his fellows, who took the lower seats.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “to eat humble pie” mean?
To come down from a position you have assumed; to be obliged to take SL lower room." Here "humble" is a pun on umble, the umbles being the heart, liver, and entrails of the deer, the huntsman's perquisites. When the lord and his household dined the venison pasty was served on the dais, but the umbles were made into a pie for the huntsman and his fellows, who took the lower seats.
Is “to eat humble pie” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.