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eat crow

 - 6 dictionary results

crow

1  [kroh]
Use eat crow in a Sentence
–noun
1. any of several large oscine birds of the genus Corvus, of the family Corvidae, having a long, stout bill, lustrous black plumage, and a wedge-shaped tail, as the common C. brachyrhynchos, of North America.
2. any of several other birds of the family Corvidae.
3. any of various similar birds of other families.
4. (initial capital letter) Astronomy. the constellation Corvus.
5. crowbar (def. 1).
—Idioms
6. as the crow flies, in a straight line; by the most direct route: The next town is thirty miles from here, as the crow flies.
7. eat crow, Informal. to be forced to admit to having made a mistake, as by retracting an emphatic statement; suffer humiliation: His prediction was completely wrong, and he had to eat crow.
8. have a crow to pick or pluck with someone, Midland and Southern U.S. to have a reason to disagree or argue with someone.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME crowe, OE crāwe, crāwa; c. OHG krāwa; akin to D kraai, G Krähe
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To eat crow
eat   (ēt)   
v.   ate (āt), eat·en (ēt'n), eat·ing, eats

v.   tr.

    1. To take into the body by the mouth for digestion or absorption.

    2. To take in and absorb as food: a plant that eats insects; a cell that eats bacteria.

    3. To include habitually or by preference in one's diet: a bird that eats insects, fruit, and seeds; stopped eating red meat on advice from her doctor.

  2. To destroy, ravage, or use up by or as if by ingesting: "Covering news in the field eats money" (George F. Will).

  3. To erode or corrode: waves that ate away the beach; an acid that eats the surface of a machine part.

  4. To produce by or as if by eating: Moths ate holes in our sweaters.

  5. Slang To absorb the cost or expense of: "You can eat your loss and switch the remaining money to other investment portfolios" (Marlys Harris).

  6. Informal To bother or annoy: What's eating him?

  7. Vulgar Slang To perform cunnilingus on. Often used with out.

v.   intr.

    1. To consume food.

    2. To have or take a meal.

  2. To exercise a consuming or eroding effect: a drill that ate away at the rock; exorbitant expenses that were eating into profits.

  3. To cause persistent annoyance or distress: "How long will it be before the frustration eats at you?" (Howard Kaplan).

Phrasal Verb(s):
eat up Slang

  1. To receive or enjoy enthusiastically or avidly: She really eats up the publicity.

  2. To believe without question: He'll eat up whatever the broker tells him.


Idiom(s):
eat crowTo be forced to accept a humiliating defeat.

Idiom(s):
eat (one's) heart out

  1. To feel bitter anguish or grief.

  2. To be consumed by jealousy.


Idiom(s):
eat (one's) wordsTo retract something that one has said.

Idiom(s):
eat out of (someone's) handTo be manipulated or dominated by another.

Idiom(s):
eat (someone) alive Slang To overwhelm or defeat thoroughly: an inexperienced manager who was eaten alive in a competitive corporate environment.

[Middle English eten, from Old English etan; see ed- in Indo-European roots.]
eat'er n.
Synonyms: These verbs mean to take food into the body by the mouth: ate a hearty dinner; greedily consumed the sandwich; hyenas devouring their prey; whales ingesting krill.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Cultural Dictionary

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.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Slang Dictionary
eat crow

  1. tv.
    to display total humility, especially when shown to be wrong. : Well, it looks like I was wrong, and I'm going to have to eat crow.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

crow  (v.)
O.E. crawian "make a loud noise like a crow;" sense of "exult in triumph" is 1522, perhaps in part because the English crow is a carrion-eater.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Idioms & Phrases

eat crow

Also, eat dirt or humble pie. 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.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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