eat (one's) words
(redirected from ate your words)eat (one's) words
To retract, regret, or feel foolish about what one has previously said. You think I can't get an A in this class, but I'll make you eat your words when we get our report cards! After my negative prediction for the season, I certainly ate my words when the team started out undefeated.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2022 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
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.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
eat your words
COMMON If someone has to eat their words, they have to admit that an opinion that they stated publicly has now been proved wrong. He was very doubtful about our chances of success but he'll be eating his words now. The company's chairman has had to eat his words about the company being recession-proof.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
eat your words
retract what you have said, especially when forced to do so.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
eat your ˈwords
be forced to admit that what you have said before was wrong: Nick told everyone that he’d be picked for the team, but when he wasn’t chosen he had to eat his words.Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
eat (one's) words
To retract something that one has said.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer