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]

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Cola	-	Anglo-Saxon
Arlen	AHR-lən	English
Lalitha	-	Tamil, Indian, Malayalam, Telugu
Ceallagh	-	Irish
Gay	GAY	English
Filbert	-	Eastern African