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Humble Pie

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To eat humble pie. To come down from a position you have assumed, to be obliged to take “a lower, room.” “Umbles” are 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 daïs, but the umbles were made into a pie for the huntsman and his fellows.

N.B. Pie and patty are both diminutives of pasty. Pasty and patty are limited to venison, veal, and some few other meats; pie is of far wider signification, including fruit, mince, etc.

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Hulsean Lectures
Hum and Haw (To)
Huma (The)
Human Race (h soft)
Human Sacrifice
Humanitarians
Humanities or Humanity Studies
Humber
Humble Bee
Humble Cow (A)
Humble Pie
Humbug
Hume (David)
Humming Ale
Hummums (in Covent Garden)
Humour
Humpback (The)
Humphrey (Master)
Humpty Dumpty
Hunchback
Hundred

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