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.”
Words Nearby curry favor
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
How to use curry favor in a sentence
But behind them are ISIS fighters and sympathizers and locals eager to curry favor by selling out their neighbors.
Darkness at Noon Prayers: Inside the Islamic Police State | Jamie Dettmer | November 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTTo that end, and perhaps to curry favor with sitting leaders, Kadyrov has come down harshly against the Arab Spring.
Chechnya’s First Lady, Medni Kadyrova, Launches Islamic Fashion Line | Anna Nemtsova | April 9, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTGilad Sharon said the resignation was designed to curry favor with hardliners.
Ariel Sharon’s Son Says His Father Would Have Kept Israel From Iran | Dan Ephron | November 28, 2011 | THE DAILY BEASTThe company has dispensed more than $42 million since 2001 trying to curry favor with lawmakers and regulators.
GOP candidates are running from their records to curry favor with conservatives.
I asked him straight out if it was to curry favor with the frat.
Ann Arbor Tales | Karl Edwin HarrimanA certain sycophant, thinking to curry favor with Johnson, took to laughing loud and long at everything he said.
All About Coffee | William H. UkersThere was no attempt to curry favor with the officers of the camp, and one admired the English tremendously for that.
Behind the Scenes in Warring Germany | Edward Lyell FoxThey have heard he isn't coming and they think to curry favor with the great man by stopping away.
My Lady's Money | Wilkie CollinsNotwithstanding its disagreeable position it does its utmost to curry favor of its oppressors.
Other Idioms and Phrases with curry favor
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.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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