eat crow
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
First appeared in the 1870s in America in the form eat boiled crow. Unknown origin, but probably a reference to the meat of the crow being very unappetizing.
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (General Australian): (file)
Verb[edit]
eat crow (third-person singular simple present eats crow, present participle eating crow, simple past ate crow, past participle eaten crow)
- (chiefly US, idiomatic) To recognize that one has been shown to be mistaken or outdone, especially by admitting that one has made a humiliating error.
- 1901, Frank Norris, chapter 2, in The Octopus[1]:
- He must apologise, he saw that clearly enough, must eat crow, as he told himself.
- 1937 July 19, “Baseball Races”, in Time[2], archived from the original on 2008-12-06:
- The Nationals started with Jerome Herman ("Dizzy") Dean, who reveled in striking out Lou Gehrig in the first inning. Gehrig made Dean eat crow in the third inning by smashing a home run.
- 1950, J.C.N.P., “Libel Actions by Political Organizations”, in University of Pennsylvania Law Review, volume 98, number 6, page 883:
- In political libel, furthermore, a public recanting by the vilifier is more likely to be believed by the public, for it is well known that no politician likes to "eat crow" unless he has to.
- 2021, John H. McWhorter, chapter 1, in Woke Racism, New York: Forum, →ISBN:
- [Alison] Roman, now typical for such cases, ate crow with an apologetic statement about how she had reflected and realized her error.
Translations[edit]
to recognize that one has mistaken
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See also[edit]
References[edit]
- Michael Quinion (2004) “Eat crow”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.