pie即“派”，一種帶餡的點心，你一定吃過了apple-pie(蘋果派)、lemon-pie(檸檬派)，meat-pie(肉派)。那麼humble pie是用什麼做餡的呢？humble是個形容詞，解釋是“卑謙的”，但實際上，這個成語中的humble一詞是umbles這個詞的訛化。umbles指鹿的內臟，以前人愛吃鹿肉，鹿肉供主人食用，鹿的心、肝之類雜碎便做成餡餅供僕人食用，因此eat humble pie便是“低三下四、忍氣吞聲”的意思：
He did not have a happy childhood because his mother died in childbirth and his father remarried, and living with his stepmother and her own children, he had to eat humble pie.
他的童年並不幸福，他的母親在生孩子時死了，父親再娶，他和繼母和她自己的子女一起生活，不得不忍氣吞聲。
He thought of quitting the team because he felt being slighted by the coach because of his comparably small build and somehow had to eat humble pie.
他因為身材矮小而受到教練的冷落，總是低人一等，因而他想離開這支球隊。
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