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| English | Russian |
| a bitter pill to swallow | переварить непросто (= a hard pill to swallow: Losing to a younger player was a bitter pill to swallow  cambridge.org Shabe) |
| a hard pill to swallow | переварить непросто (= a bitter pill to swallow: It was a hard pill to swallow learning that my father's fortune had been squandered thefreedictionary.com Shabe) |
| blue pill | пилюля иллюзии (Баян) |
| sugar coat the pill | резать правду-матку (to tell an unpleasant truth in the most pleasant possible way Yeldar Azanbayev) |
| sugarcoat the pill | подсластить пилюлю (wiktionary.org Shabe) |
| swallow the bitter pill | проглотить горькую пилюлю (Andrey Truhachev) |
| sweeten the pill | подсластить пилюлю (wiktionary.org Shabe) |