烏鴉是人們都討厭的鳥，它又大又黑，叫的聲音既粗又難聽。烏鴉的肉也老得沒法吃?？墒?，有一個美國俗語偏偏就是“吃烏鴉”： to eat crow。 Eat就是吃，crow就是烏鴉。烏鴉肉根本是沒法吃的，因此要一個人吃烏鴉，那肯定是非常難受的。這也正是to eat crow這個俗語的意思。 To eat crow的確切意思是一個人把自己弄得很丟臉，因為他犯了一個很難堪的錯誤，而又不得不承認。也許舉個例子能夠更好地說明to eat crow的意思：
That man running for mayor went around bragging he'd win the election by a big 50,000 majority. But he had to eat crow when the woman running against him won by more than 60,000 votes. 那個競選市長的人到處吹噓說他肯定能得到大多數(shù)選民的擁護，以五萬張選票當選市長?？墒?，現(xiàn)在他很丟臉，因為那位和他一起競選的女候選人最后獲得六萬多張選票而當選市長。
可是，愛夸口的人似乎到處都是。下面的一個例子更是可笑:
Our neighbor had to eat crow yesterday. He's been telling us what a good tennis player he is. Well, he took my 12-year-old son out to play and the kid beat him three straight sets. 我們的鄰居真是丟了臉。他老是在我們面前吹噓，說他網(wǎng)球打得多么好。他昨天帶著我那十二歲的兒子去打網(wǎng)球，結(jié)果我兒子以三比零把他打敗了。
That man running for mayor went around bragging he'd win the election by a big 50,000 majority. But he had to eat crow when the woman running against him won by more than 60,000 votes. 那個競選市長的人到處吹噓說他肯定能得到大多數(shù)選民的擁護，以五萬張選票當選市長?？墒?，現(xiàn)在他很丟臉，因為那位和他一起競選的女候選人最后獲得六萬多張選票而當選市長。
可是，愛夸口的人似乎到處都是。下面的一個例子更是可笑:
Our neighbor had to eat crow yesterday. He's been telling us what a good tennis player he is. Well, he took my 12-year-old son out to play and the kid beat him three straight sets. 我們的鄰居真是丟了臉。他老是在我們面前吹噓，說他網(wǎng)球打得多么好。他昨天帶著我那十二歲的兒子去打網(wǎng)球，結(jié)果我兒子以三比零把他打敗了。