View synonyms for

eat crow

To suffer a humiliating experience: “The organizers had to eat crow when the fair they had sworn would attract thousands drew scarcely a hundred people.” The phrase probably refers to the fact that crow meat tastes terrible.

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Idioms and Phrases

Also,. Be forced to admit a humiliating mistake, as in When the reporter got the facts all wrong, his editor made him eat crow. The first term's origin has been lost, although a story relates that it involved a War of 1812 encounter in which a British officer made an American soldier eat part of a crow he had shot in British territory. Whether or not it is true, the fact remains that crow meat tastes terrible. The two variants originated in Britain. Dirt obviously tastes bad. And humble pie alludes to a pie made from umbles, a deer's undesirable innards (heart, liver, entrails). [Early 1800s] Also see eat one's words.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

“We keep being asked to pivot, pivot, pivot. We keep being asked to eat crow,” says actor and writer Brendan Bradley.

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When Watters responded, "This is garbage," Graham was forced to eat crow.

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And they may have to eat crow after the election.

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She doesn’t think control of the House will rest on the 3rd District outcome, adding if a Kent loss does cost the GOP a majority, “I will eat crow and feel real bad.”

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But it didn’t happen last season, and anyone who doesn’t want to eat crow should bet against this being the year that Father Time catches up to Ovechkin.

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eat away at eaten

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