have egg on (one's) face
(redirected from egg on one's face, had)have egg on (one's) face
To be suffering embarrassment as a result of some public failure or faux pas. I was so nervous that I said the wrong name during the wedding ceremony. Boy, do I have egg on my face now! The CEO really had egg on his face after he went on stage to demonstrate the new product and couldn't get it to work.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
have egg on one's face
Fig. to be embarrassed by something one has done. (As if one went out in public with a dirty face.) I was completely wrong, and now I have egg on my face. She's really got egg on her face!
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
egg on one's face, have
Look foolish or be embarrassed, as in If you ask any more personal questions, you'll end up with egg on your face. This expression possibly alludes to dissatisfied audiences pelting performers with raw eggs. [Colloquial; mid-1900s]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
have egg on one’s face
tv. to be embarrassed by something one has done. (As if one went out in public with a dirty face. Have got can replace have.) She’s really got egg on her face!
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
egg on one's face, to have/wipe off the
To have made a fool of oneself. An Americanism of the mid-twentieth century, this self-evident metaphor for having made a mess of oneself soon crossed the Atlantic. (John Ciardi, however, speculates it may derive from an entertainer’s being pelted with garbage, including raw eggs, by a dissatisfied audience.) The other version, to wipe the egg off one’s face, means the same thing, implying that one has made an embarrassing error (not that one is correcting it). See also lay an egg.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer