English

Alternative forms

• bitter pill

Noun

bitter pill to swallow ‎(plural bitter pills to swallow)

1. Used other than as an idiom: see bitter pill,‎ swallow.
2. (idiomatic) Something unpleasant that must be accepted or endured.
   • 1886, George Gissing, Demos: A Story of English Socialism, ch. 10:

     [T]o see himself dethroned, the object of her contempt, was a bitter pill to swallow.

   • 1920, "Amundsen to Try Again for Pole," New York Times, 1 May, p. 14:

     "[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."

   • 2006, Tony Karon, "Inside Iraq's 'Amnesty' Plan," Time, 26 Jun.:

     Giving them amnesty would be a bitter pill for the U.S. to swallow.

Usage notes

• Bitter pill(s) to swallow is not a set phrase. Only a little more than 40% of the usage at COCA with a form of swallow within 9 words before or after is of the form given.
• Other verbs such as take, down, and digest may replace swallow.
• About one third of the time bitter pill appears without any such verb nearby.
• Other adjectives modify pill about 60% of the time: hard, tough, bad, difficult, even easy.

See also

• hard pill to swallow