| Distasteful dose |
| Hard thing to accept |
| It's hard to swallow |
| Unpleasant situation |
| Hard thing to swallow |
| Hard-to-accept situation |
| It may be hard to swallow |
| Hard-to-accept consequence |
| Result that is hard to accept |
| Hard-to-accept result, figuratively |
| Difficult thing to swallow, figuratively |
| Hard-to-accept consequence, metaphorically |
| What the reality of the oil spill has been, so to speak, for BP |