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This is an American colloquialism, meaning to be forced to retract one's words or to admit that one was wrong. The exact origin is unknown, but it appeared in an 1850 story, so it's been around since before then. It seems to be related to "eating one's words." Crows are among the birds listed in The Bible as being unsafe to eat, so eating crow would be something very distasteful.

A similar British phrase is "eat humble pie" ("humbles" are the intestines and less-tasty parts of an animal, so you get the same effect as "eat crow").

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