eat one's words or break one's promise
In our Chinese if one broke his promise we'll say "shi yan " ,it means someone ate his words.Could I use "eat one's words" to instead of "break one's promise"?
No, different meanings in English.
To eat ones words means that someone has been wrong about something. He said he would beat me but I made him eat his words.
To break a promise is simply not to do what you have said you would do.
2013年9月27日
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If you have to eat your words, you have to admit you were wrong, often in a humiliating way. Imagine a guy bragging about being the best player on his sports team, but then he gets cut from the team. He would have to eat his words.