🍞 “a hard pill to swallow”

What it means: An unpleasant fact you must accept.

“Losing by a single mark was a hard pill to swallow.”

Where it comes from

A 19th-century medical metaphor: before sweet coatings, medicine was exactly as grim as it tasted.

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not my cup of teaspill the beansa piece of cakethe best thing since sliced breadbread and butter

More phrases, including proverbs from dozens of languages, at Proverbs of the World.