to light low and variants: to suffer misfortune or adversity; to be degraded or humiliated; to be brought low. Obsolete.

To lie on or below the ground, or another surface; to lie prostrate or dead, to be buried; to lie down; to crouch, keep low; (of a structure) to be…

to carry (also bear) coals: to do degrading or menial work; (hence figurative) to submit to humiliating or insulting treatment. Obsolete (archaic in…

to eat the (or one's) leek: to submit to humiliation under compulsion (in allusion to the Shakespeare passage below).

to lose caste: to be ostracized from or censured by one's caste, typically for behaviour considered unacceptable to that group; to lose the…

Phrases. to eat dirt: to submit to degrading treatment; also (U.S.) humiliating confession or retractation. Proverb. ‘Every man must eat a peck of…