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Glite Dictionary
to eat crow

to eat crow

4 8.9
To admit you were wrong and feel embarrassed
  • idiom
  • Informal
translation icon : tragarse su orgullo
  • The negative supersedes the positive with such a wide margin that you are left defenseless and forced to eat crow.
  • eat crow now
  • go back and eat crow

It will be a lot of eating crow and humble pie.

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Examples

  • While I'll eat crow if they did put up a fight, my money says they probably did nothing.

    Blog text (24)

  • It will be a lot of eating crow and humble pie.

    Tom Bilyeu

  • I can eat crow in the name of a good cause.

    Lorenzo's Oil (1992)

  • I also have a job now and am responsible for customers and accounts, and I have to eat crow regularly.

    Blog text (9)

  • I thought I'd have to eat crow, but this is cake.

    Flywheel (2003)

  • I wouldn't want to eat crow under those circumstances...

    Blog text (20)

  • This is such a great topic because there have been things that I swore I would never do and ate crow after!

    Blog text (20)

  • One, I hope all you analysts who said VCU didn't belong are properly eating crow and apologizing today.

    Blog text (27)

  • After insisting he was right, he had to eat crow when the evidence proved him wrong.

  • She finally had to eat crow after losing the debate and admitting her mistake.

Synonyms

to swallow pride
vsto eat crow
  • Informal
9 5.7

To accept being wrong to make peace or get help

is not usually motivated by seeking reconciliation or a greater good
to eat dirt
vsto eat crow
  • Informal
2 8.9

To admit you are wrong and accept feeling ashamed, often unwillingly

is not necessarily an unwilling or resigned acceptance
to eat humble pie
vsto eat crow
  • Informal
1 7.9

To admit you are wrong and feel embarrassed

is less focused on personal shame and more on conceding a dispute
to eat one's words
vsto eat crow
  • Informal
6.6

To admit you were wrong and take back what you said

is broader than mere retraction, covering humiliation beyond words
to swallow the leek
vsto eat crow
  • Archaic
9.9

To accept something unpleasant during talks to avoid bigger problems

is not tied to negotiations, and often follows being proved wrong in disputes

Antonyms

to defend
691 2.8

To speak up to support a person or idea when others criticize it

to boast
96 3.1

To talk proudly about your achievements to impress people

How Humiliated

to grovel
42 7.4
to eat crow
  • Informal
4 8.9
to apologize
  • US
∞ 1.7
to own up
  • Informal
38 4.4
to acknowledge
367 3.8

Surface Forms

eat crow infinitive
ate crow past
eaten crow past participle
eating crow present participle
eats crow third person singular

Morphology

eat + crow

The sense 'to admit one was wrong / accept humiliation' cannot be predicted from 'eat' (to consume) plus 'crow' (either a bird or 'to boast'); a literal reading suggests consuming a bird or is semantically anomalous. This is an idiomatic, historically motivated expression whose meaning is not compositionally derived, so a B1 learner who only knows the parts would not reliably infer the idiomatic sense.

Etymology

The idiom eat crow may come from the idea of being forced to eat a crow, a bird thought to taste very bad. That's why eat crow means 'admit you were wrong' or accept shame after being proved wrong.