eat crow

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.

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

eat crow (third-person singular simple present eats crow, present participle eating crow, simple past ate crow, past participle eaten crow)

1. (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:

     He must apologise, he saw that clearly enough, must eat crow, as he told himself.

   • 1937, "Baseball Races," Time, 19 Jul.:

     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," University of Pennsylvania Law Review, vol. 98, no. 6, p. 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.

• croweater
• eat humble pie
• hard pill to swallow

• “Eat crow” in Michael Quinion, Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, 2004, →ISBN.

• ate crow