eat crow

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To admit defeat or error, often with humiliation

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Thừa nhận thất bại hoặc sai lầm, thường với sự xấu hổ

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to eat the bird
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

After losing the argument, he had to eat crow

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “eat crow” mean?

To admit defeat or error, often with humiliation Literally: to eat the bird

Is “eat crow” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.