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curry favor

“Currying favor” with someone means trying to ingratiate oneself by fawning over that person: “The ambassador curried favor with the dictator by praising his construction projects.”

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Idioms and Phrases

Seek gain or advancement by fawning or flattery, as in Edith was famous for currying favor with her teachers. This expression originally came from the Old French estriller fauvel, “curry the fallow horse,” a beast that in a 14th-century allegory stood for duplicity and cunning. It came into English about 1400 as curry favel —that is, curry (groom with a currycomb) the animal—and in the 1500s became the present term.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

House Minority Leader Jeffries has signaled zeal to curry favor with corporate billionaires, contrary to the wishes of the Democratic base.

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Several of the party’s candidates scurried around the Anaheim convention center, trying to curry favor with the state’s most liberal activists while also drawing contrasts with their rivals.

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Staying true to the South Korean right’s self-identification as the staunchly pro-U.S. political camp, Kim has accused Lee of seeking to curry favor with China at the expense of the U.S.-South Korea relationship.

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His hotel in Washington, since sold, served as a meeting place for political players and foreign agents of all kinds who spent lavishly to curry favor with the proprietor.

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Though Schleifer’s family might be wealthy, the source said, the firing seemed politically motivated and meant to scare prosecutors who might pursue defendants who curry favor with Trump.

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currycomb curry leaf

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