Eat your words
Meaning
To retract a statement, especially one made boastfully or confidently, after being proven wrong.
Origin
Imagine the bitter taste of humiliation, a sensation so sharp it feels like you're literally consuming your own ill-considered statements. This vivid, if unappetizing, imagery underpins "eat your words," a phrase first recorded in English in 1618. The metaphor draws its power from the unpleasantness of ingestion, suggesting that taking back one's confident or boastful claims, especially after being proven wrong, is as difficult and distasteful as literally swallowing one's own spoken utterances. It quickly became a popular and punchy way to describe the public retraction of a failed prophecy or an arrogant boast, forcing the speaker to digest their own errors.
Examples
- He was so sure his team would win, but after they lost, he had to eat his words about them being unbeatable.
- I told my boss that the new system wouldn't work, and now that it's a huge success, I guess I'll have to eat my words.