eat humble pie

The spoken phrase a numble pie (a pie made from the entrails of a deer) was re-interpreted as an umble pie, then written as (a) humble pie, after which the figurative meaning developed.

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eat humble pie

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) to admit one's faults; to make a humiliating apology
   • 1869, Louisa May Alcott, An Old-Fashioned Girl:

     Polly had a spice of girlish malice, and rather liked to see domineering Tom eat humble-pie, just enough to do him good, you know.

• humble in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• “Eat humble pie”, in BBC Learning English‎, BBC, 4 November 2014