To eat boiled crow
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To eat boiled crow is to be proven wrong after having strongly expressed one's opinion. In North America, the expression is simply to eat crow.
[edit] Origin
It is most likely an Americanization of the English "To eat humble pie". The English phrase is something of a pun — "umbles" were the intestines and other unsavories of a deer. Pies made of this were known to be served to those of lesser class who did not eat at the king's/lord's/governor's table.
Another dish likely to be served with humble pie is rook pie (rooks being closely related to crows). This may be another clue as to how humble pie became boiled crow.
Another possible connection comes from a short story by Rudyard Kipling. In his story "The Strange Ride of Morrowbie Jukes," Morrowbie Jukes falls into a place from which he cannot escape. Another man trapped there catches wild crows and eats them, but Morrowbie in his pride declares, 'I shall never eat crow!' After days of nothing to eat, his hunger and desperation finally forces him to do what he swore he would never do - literally eat crow.
