词汇 | eat one's words |
释义 | Idiom eat one's words Theme: ACCEPTANCE 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. eat (one's) wordsTo 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. eat one's wordsBe 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] eat one's words, toTo 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. |
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