humble pie

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

hum′ble pie′, 

1. humility forced upon someone, often under embarrassing conditions;
   humiliation.
2. [Obs.] a pie made of the viscera and other inferior parts of deer or the like.
3. Idioms eat humble pie, to be forced to apologize humbly;
   suffer humiliation:
   He had to eat humble pie and publicly admit his error.
• 1640–50; earlier phrase an umble pie, erroneous for a numble pie; see numbles

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

humble pie noun

1. (formerly) a pie made from the heart, entrails, etc, of a deer
2. eat humble pie ⇒ to behave or be forced to behave humbly; be humiliated

Etymology: 17th Century: earlier an umble pie, by mistaken word division from a numble pie, from numbles offal of a deer, from Old French nombles, ultimately from Latin lumbulus a little loin, from lumbus loin