to feel like a pillock
- idiom
- Offensive
:
sentirse como un idiota
- She felt like a pillock when she realized she’d been talking to the wrong person the entire time.
Examples
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Forgetting his mother’s birthday made him feel like a pillock in front of his family.
-
After tripping in front of everyone at the meeting, he felt like a pillock for the rest of the day.
-
I feel like a pillock for forgetting her birthday!
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After that mistake, he felt like a pillock.
-
After tripping in front of everyone at the meeting, he felt like a pillock for the rest of the day.
-
Forgetting his mother’s birthday made him feel like a pillock in front of his family.
-
She felt like a pillock when she realized she’d been talking to the wrong person the entire time.
Synonyms
9
6.0
To be embarrassed and silly because of something you did
3
6.0
Be embarrassed and think you are foolish after making a mistake
1
9.9
To feel foolish and embarrassed about something you did
1
9.9
To feel silly for believing someone who tricked you
To feel foolish after making a mistake
To feel foolish and embarrassed because of something you did
Being foolish and embarrassed after making an obvious mistake
To feel foolish or embarrassed because of a mistake
To think you are silly after making a mistake
To be foolish or embarrassed after making a mistake
Act or seem foolish and unable to do something in a situation
To feel foolish and embarrassed after a careless mistake
Antonyms
How Foolish
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'feel' (experience) + 'like' (similar to) + 'a pillock' (a foolish person) yields 'to feel foolish or stupid'. This simile-like structure is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common composition, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can infer the MWE meaning (though 'pillock' is colloquial British vocabulary).
Etymology
Feel like a pillock may come from the old British slang word pillock, a mild, rude name for someone who acts foolish. The image is simple: after a clumsy or silly mistake you see yourself as that foolish person, so you 'feel like a pillock' — in other words, 'foolish' or 'stupid'.