<P> Eating crow is a colloquial idiom, used in English - speaking countries that means humiliation by admitting having been proven wrong after taking a strong position . Crow is presumably foul - tasting in the same way that being proven wrong might be emotionally hard to swallow . The exact origin of the idiom is unknown, but it probably began with an American story published around 1850 about a dim - witted New York farmer . Eating crow is of a family of idioms having to do with eating and being proven incorrect, such as to "eat dirt" and to "eat your hat" (or shoe), all probably originating from "to eat one's words", which first appears in print in 1571 in one of John Calvin's tracts, on Psalm 62: "God eateth not his words when he hath once spoken". </P> <P> An Australian demonym for South Australian people is croweater but it does not carry the same idomatic meaning as eating crow . </P> <P> Literally eating a crow is traditionally seen as being distasteful; the crow is one of the birds listed in Leviticus chapter 11 as being unfit for eating . Scavenging carrion eaters have a long association with the battlefield, "They left the corpses behind for the raven, never was there greater slaughter in this island," says the Anglo - Saxon Chronicle . Along with buzzards, rats, and other carrion - eating scavenging animals, there is a tradition in Western culture going back to at least the Middle Ages of seeing them as distasteful (even illegal at times) to eat, and thus naturally humiliating if forced to consume against one's will . </P>

Where did the phrase eat crow come from