pity pie

9.9

Eating comfort food because you feel sorry for yourself

noun

Informal

: autocompasión

Stop eating your pity pie and get back to work!

Examples

Sometimes it's healthy to acknowledge your feelings, but don't make a habit of serving pity pie.
She refused to let herself have any pity pie after making a mistake at work.
After the breakup, he sat alone eating a large slice of pity pie.
After losing the game, John had a big pity pie moment.
He found himself indulging in a big slice of pity pie after losing his job.
Rather than wallowing in pity pie, she decided to focus on her future opportunities.
After hearing the bad news, he made a joke about needing a second helping of pity pie.

Synonyms

self-pity

vspity pie

36 5.2

A feeling of being sorry for yourself and thinking only about your problems

is a short, often humorous instance of that excessive sorrow

pity pot

vspity pie

9.9

A long feeling of being sorry for yourself and thinking only about your problems

is a brief, often playful display of that same self-focused sorrow

Antonyms

resilience

52 4.8

Ability to return to original shape or recover quickly after a problem

empowerment

49 3.9

The process of becoming stronger, more confident, and able to make choices

Surface Forms

pity pie singular

pity pies plural

Morphology

pity + pie

The compound pairs 'pity' (self-sorrow) with 'pie' (a food) to create a playful consumption metaphor—especially in context ('stop eating your pity pie') the meaning 'indulging in self-pity' is inferable. However, this figurative, humorous use is not a standard, fully productive composition and relies on cultural metaphorical usage, so it is only partially predictable to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The compound noun pity pie comes from the funny picture of someone serving a big pie made of their pity and eating a slice while feeling sorry for themselves. That's why it means a show of too much sadness or 'feeling sorry for yourself'.