From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthat’s the way the cookie crumblesthat’s the way the cookie crumblesinformalACCEPT said when something bad has happened and you must accept things the way they are, even though you do not want to → cookie
Examples from the Corpus
that’s the way the cookie crumbles• "Sorry you didn't get the job, Mike." "Yeah, thanks. I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles." 