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bitter pill to swallow

noun

Definitions

  1. Something unpleasant that must be accepted or endured.

    • [T]o see himself dethroned, the object of her contempt, was a bitter pill to swallow.
    • "[W]e cast loose from the ice after a very careful inspection which left us no hope whatsoever of penetrating it. […] It was a bitter pill to swallow, but we decided to search for Winter quarters somewhere along the coast."
    • Giving them amnesty would be a bitter pill for the U.S. to swallow.

  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bitter pill, swallow.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bitter pill to swallow. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA