eat humble pie

apologize

Acknowledge a fault

• confessAcknowledge wrongdoing openly
• acknowledgeConfirm receipt or truth
• concedeAdmit something reluctantly

own up · backtrack · retract · recant · mea culpa · climb down · eat crow · eat one's words · swallow one's pride · take back

back down

Withdraw from a stance

• give inCease resistance, concede
• yieldProduce or relinquish
• surrenderCease resistance, yield

cave · relent · acquiesce · defer · submit · accept defeat · bow · climb down · wave the white flag · swallow one's words

remorse

Guilt for wrongdoing

• regretSorrow over past actions
• repentanceRemorseful rejection of past wrongs
• atonementCompensation for wrongdoing

penitence · guilt · sorrow · contriteness · self-reproach · compunction · penance · make amends · rue · apologetic

mortification

Intense shame or embarrassment

• embarrassmentSelf-conscious unease
• chagrinDistress from wounded pride
• shamePainful awareness of failure

red-faced · disgrace · loss of face · comeuppance · indignity · awkwardness · discomfiture · sheepishness · wounded pride · egg on face

• food idiomspiece of cake, bread winner, low-hanging fruit, cool as a cucumber, bad egg
• Old Idiomsbeyond the pale, hue and cry, scot-free, knight in shining armor, cross the Rubicon
• embarrassmentembarrassed, blush, humiliated, mortify, mortified
• humiliationashamed, abasement, embarrassed, chagrin, mortified
• losing phrasesgame over, you lose, lose out, defeated, beaten
• reconciliationreconciliation, reconcile, reconciled, reconciling, making up