🗓️ Idiom: A Bitter Pill to Swallow (n)
💬 Meaning
- A situation or decision that is difficult to accept.
- It means accepting something unpleasant, especially during business changes or restructuring.
🧠 Example Sentences
- Losing half the team during the reorganisation was a bitter pill to swallow.
- The price increase was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was necessary to stay in business.
- It was a bitter pill to swallow when the project was canceled after months of work.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom comes from the unpleasant experience of taking bad-tasting medicine. In business, it refers to news or decisions that are hard to accept but often required.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
For many employees, the new policy was __________ after years of doing things differently.
Answer
a bitter pill to swallow
2. Choose the correct meaning of “a bitter pill to swallow”:
A) An easy decision
B) A surprising discovery
C) Something difficult but necessary to accept
D) A funny misunderstanding
Answer
C) Something difficult but necessary to accept
3. Rewrite the sentence using the idiom:
“It was very hard for the team to accept the sudden job cuts.” → Change the sentence using: a bitter pill to swallow
Answer
The sudden job cuts were a bitter pill to swallow for the team.
ℹ️ Other Useful Pages
Rob is a CELTA qualified English teacher with 15 years of international experience. He has a BSc and PGDip from Loughborough and St Andrews universities in the UK. He has taught in Thailand and Saudi Arabia and now works with professionals worldwide.
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