What is "to eat humble pie"

Humble \Hum"ble\, a. [Compar. Humbler; superl. Humblest.] [F., fr. L. humilis on the ground, low, fr. humus the earth, ground. See Homage, and cf. Chameleon, Humiliate.]

1. Near the ground; not high or lofty; not pretentious or magnificent; unpretending; unassuming; as, a humble cottage.

   THy humble nest built on the ground.
   --Cowley.

2. Thinking lowly of one's self; claiming little for one's self; not proud, arrogant, or assuming; thinking one's self ill-deserving or unworthy, when judged by the demands of God; lowly; waek; modest.

   God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
   --Jas. iv. 6.

   She should be humble who would please.
   --Prior.

   Without a humble imitation of the divine Author of our . . . religion we can never hope to be a happy nation.
   --Washington.

   Humble plant (Bot.), a species of sensitive plant, of the genus Mimosa ( Mimosa sensitiva).

   To eat humble pie, to endure mortification; to submit or apologize abjectly; to yield passively to insult or humilitation; -- a phrase derived from a pie made of the entrails or humbles of a deer, which was formerly served to servants and retainers at a hunting feast. See Humbles.
   --Halliwell.
   --Thackeray.

Eat \Eat\ ([=e]t), v. t. [imp. Ate ([=a]t; 277), Obsolescent & Colloq. Eat ([e^]t); p. p. Eaten ([=e]t"'n), Obs. or Colloq. Eat ([e^]t); p. pr. & vb. n. Eating.] [OE. eten, AS. etan; akin to OS. etan, OFries. eta, D. eten, OHG. ezzan, G. essen, Icel. eta, Sw. ["a]ta, Dan. [ae]de, Goth. itan, Ir. & Gael. ith, W. ysu, L. edere, Gr. 'e`dein, Skr. ad. [root]6. Cf. Etch, Fret to rub, Edible.]

1. To chew and swallow as food; to devour; -- said especially of food not liquid; as, to eat bread. ``To eat grass as oxen.''
   --Dan. iv. 25.

   They . . . ate the sacrifices of the dead.
   --Ps. cvi. 28.

   The lean . . . did eat up the first seven fat kine.
   --Gen. xli. 20.

   The lion had not eaten the carcass.
   --1 Kings xiii. 28.

   With stories told of many a feat, How fairy Mab the junkets eat.
   --Milton.

   The island princes overbold Have eat our substance.
   --Tennyson.

   His wretched estate is eaten up with mortgages.
   --Thackeray.

2. To corrode, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a cancer; to waste or wear away; to destroy gradually; to cause to disappear.

   To eat humble pie. See under Humble.

   To eat of (partitive use). ``Eat of the bread that can not waste.''
   --Keble.

   To eat one's words, to retract what one has said. (See the Citation under Blurt.)

   To eat out, to consume completely. ``Eat out the heart and comfort of it.''
   --Tillotson.

   To eat the wind out of a vessel (Naut.), to gain slowly to windward of her.

   Syn: To consume; devour; gnaw; corrode.