Caught with egg on your face

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Meaning

Left looking foolish or publicly embarrassed because something you did, said, or predicted went wrong.

Origin

The established forms are have or get egg on one's face, an American expression recorded in the mid-twentieth century. An example located in a 1946 Hollywood report explains egg on his face as film-studio language for an actor's embarrassed expression when the camera lingered after the lines had ended. The broader sense of humiliation followed. The literal image has not been established: eggs thrown at performers and the mess left by careless eating are both suggested, but neither is proved. The current claim that the idiom came from vaudeville should therefore be removed.

Research Sources

  1. Origin of 'to have, or to get, egg on one's face' Word Histories
  2. Egg on one's face Merriam-Webster

Variants

  • Have egg on your face
  • Get egg on your face

Usage Examples

  • The minister was left with egg on her face when the promised figures contradicted the department's own report.
  • I will have egg on my face if the supposedly simple repair fails again tomorrow.
  • Their confident forecast missed by twenty points, leaving the analysts with egg on their faces.

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