pill

a bitter pill (to swallow)

a situation that is unpleasant but must be accepted. Losing the championship to a younger player was a bitter pill to swallow. Cuts in salaries are a dose of bitter medicine that may help the company to survive.

See also: bitter

pill-popping

pop pills - to take too many pills. As their relationship fell apart, his pill-popping started to get seriously out of control.

pop pills

to take too many pills. Soon she was popping pills again in an effort to cope with the increasing pressure of her job. (usually in continuous tenses)

See also: pop

sugar/sweeten the pill (British, American & Australian, American)

to make something bad seem less unpleasant. The government have cut income tax to sweeten the pill of a tough budget.

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a bitter pill (to swallow)

an unpleasant situation that must be accepted. Losing the championship was a bitter pill to swallow for a team that was used to winning every year. Having his fate in the hands of others is a bitter pill for this proud man.

See also: bitter