"bitter pill to swallow" meaning in English

{
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    {
      "form": "bitter pills to swallow",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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        "1": "bitter pills to swallow",
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      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "74 26",
          "kind": "other",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1886, George Gissing, chapter 10, in Demos: A Story of English Socialism:",
          "text": "[T]o see himself dethroned, the object of her contempt, was a bitter pill to swallow.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1920 May 1, “Amundsen to Try Again for Pole”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "\"[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.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 June 26, Tony Karon, “Inside Iraq's 'Amnesty' Plan”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-09-03:",
          "text": "Giving them amnesty would be a bitter pill for the U.S. to swallow.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something unpleasant that must be accepted or endured."
      ],
      "id": "en-bitter_pill_to_swallow-en-noun-hMIqBxTW",
      "links": [
        [
          "unpleasant",
          "unpleasant"
        ],
        [
          "accepted",
          "accepted"
        ],
        [
          "endured",
          "endured"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) Something unpleasant that must be accepted or endured."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "difficult pill to swallow"
        },
        {
          "word": "hard pill to swallow"
        },
        {
          "word": "tough pill to swallow"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bitter pill, swallow."
      ],
      "id": "en-bitter_pill_to_swallow-en-noun-aH2ZBsY7",
      "links": [
        [
          "bitter pill",
          "bitter pill#English"
        ],
        [
          "swallow",
          "swallow#English"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "word": "hard to swallow"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "word": "swallow a bitter pill"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "word": "sugarcoat the pill"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "4 96",
          "word": "bitter pill"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
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  "word": "bitter pill to swallow"
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
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    "English nouns",
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  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bitter pills to swallow",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
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        "1": "bitter pills to swallow",
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      },
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      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "hard to swallow"
    },
    {
      "word": "swallow a bitter pill"
    },
    {
      "word": "sugarcoat the pill"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1886, George Gissing, chapter 10, in Demos: A Story of English Socialism:",
          "text": "[T]o see himself dethroned, the object of her contempt, was a bitter pill to swallow.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1920 May 1, “Amundsen to Try Again for Pole”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "\"[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.\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2006 June 26, Tony Karon, “Inside Iraq's 'Amnesty' Plan”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-09-03:",
          "text": "Giving them amnesty would be a bitter pill for the U.S. to swallow.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something unpleasant that must be accepted or endured."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "unpleasant",
          "unpleasant"
        ],
        [
          "accepted",
          "accepted"
        ],
        [
          "endured",
          "endured"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative) Something unpleasant that must be accepted or endured."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "difficult pill to swallow"
        },
        {
          "word": "hard pill to swallow"
        },
        {
          "word": "tough pill to swallow"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "figuratively"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bitter pill, swallow."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bitter pill",
          "bitter pill#English"
        ],
        [
          "swallow",
          "swallow#English"
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "bitter pill"
    }
  ],
  "word": "bitter pill to swallow"
}