Crossword Genius

Humiliatingly tuck into alphabet soup? (3,4,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

eat ones words

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'alphabet soup?' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'humiliatingly tuck into' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'tuck into' could be 'eat' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'eat' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for eat ones words that I've seen before include "Retract a statement" , "Retract what one has said" , "Recant - retract" , "Humbly take back something said" , "Take back earlier pronouncement" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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