eat one's words, to
eat (one's) words
Fig. to have to take back one's statements; to confess that one's predictions were wrong. You shouldn't say that to me. I'll make you eat your words. John was wrong about the election and had to eat his words.
See also: eat, word
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
eat one's words
Be forced to retract something one has said, as in The incumbent won easily, so I had to eat my words. This expression was already proverbial in John Ray's English Proverbs (1670). [Second half of 1500s]
See also: eat, word
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
eat (one's) words
To retract something that one has said.
See also: eat, word
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
eat one's words, to
To be forced to retract a statement, usually in a humiliating way. The term first appeared in a sixteenth-century tract by John Calvin on Psalm 62: “God eateth not his word when he hath once spoken.” In 1618 Sir Walter Raleigh wrote in his memoirs, “Nay wee’le make you confesse . . . and eat your own words,” and in 1670 the expression appeared in John Ray’s collection of English proverbs.
See also: eat
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
- at doorstep
- at (one's) doorstep
- at (one's) expense
- at expense
- at somebody's expense
- at someone's expense
- be remembered as (something)
- be remembered as/for something
- be in (one's) good graces
- be in someone's good graces