pills to swallow
Capsules you ingest
Difficult facts or situations one must accept despite reluctance or displeasure.
Usually appears with adjectives describing the difficulty: a hard pill to swallow, a bitter pill to swallow.
The metaphor likens unpleasant truths to medicine—beneficial perhaps, but unpleasant going down.
Losing the championship was a tough pill to swallow.
- hard truthUnpleasant accurate statement
- harsh realityUncomfortable actual circumstances
- medicationTherapeutic substance for illness
- capsuleEnclosed dose container
- tabletFlat portable computing device
dosage · medicine cabinet · supplement · placebo · challenge · life lesson · growing pains · prescription · daily dose · acceptance · compromise · resilience · personal growth · over-the-counter · antihistamine · gulp · analgesic · antibiotic
pills to swallowinjections
Syringe-administered doses
topical creams · suppositories · transdermal patches · IV infusion · subcutaneous injection
pills to swallowsyrups
Thick sweet liquids
elixirs · suspensions · solutions · aerosols · gases
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