eat crow
Swallow one's pride
To eat crow is to admit you were wrong, especially after stubbornly insisting otherwise.
The phrase suggests the humiliation of being forced to swallow something unpleasant: After predicting a landslide victory, the pundits had to eat crow when the election went the other way.
Sometimes intensified as eat humble pie.
- grovelHumble oneself servilely
- cap in handHumbly requesting favor
- hat in handWith humble respect
- climb downWithdraw a stated position
- mea culpaAcknowledgment of personal blame
tail between legs · backpedal · humility · mortification · apologize · public apology · backtrack · face the music · retract · back down · say uncle · humble pie · bitter pill · kowtow · own up · come clean · regret · confession
- bird expressionsearly bird, birdbrain, bird brain, lovebirds, jailbird
- embarrassmentembarrassed, blush, humiliated, mortify, mortified
- humiliationashamed, abasement, embarrassed, chagrin, mortified
- humilityhumbleness, humble, meekness, modesty, modest
- losing phrasesgame over, you lose, lose out, defeated, beaten
- reconciliationreconciliation, reconcile, reconciled, reconciling, making up
admission vs. denial
eat crowdouble down
Strengthen one's stance
dig in · stand one's ground · stick to one's guns · bluster · deny
eat, crow, eats, eating, eaten, crows, eatery, eater, crowing