egg on someone's face
informal phrase

- If someone has or gets egg on their face, they look stupid because of something that they have done.

(Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary)

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ORIGIN

The origin of "egg on one's face" is not clear, although etymology experts have put forth several theories.

The most obvious is the picture of a person with bad table manners and/or sloppy eating habits who smears his face with egg and thus appears foolish.

The expression may also stem from the days when bad actors were driven from the theatre stage by eggs thrown from an unhappy audience (tomatoes were also popular). Bad acting these days results in boos and whistles or worst case, an empty theatre.

Politicians and business leaders can also get egg on their faces, as Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer once found out at a university in Budapest.

Lastly, a more homely origin could derive from farm dogs who like to raid nests and eat the eggs. As dogs rarely possess good eating habits, they may return to the farmer with egg on their snouts, looking rather silly and not really knowing what they did wrong.

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Practice OWAD in a conversation:

"Everyone gets EGG ON THEIR FACE from time to time, it's all part of life's experience."

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My thanks to dearly departed Ron for having suggested today's word!