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• curry
  curry

  noun

  a pungent dish of vegetables, onions, meat or fish, etc., flavored with various spices or curry powder, and often eaten with rice.
• Curry
  Curry

  noun

  John (Anthony), 1949–94, British figure skater.

curry

¹ American  

[kur-ee, kuhr-ee] / ˈkɜr i, ˈkʌr i /

Sometimes currie

noun

• curries
  plural

1. East Indian Cooking. a pungent dish of vegetables, onions, meat or fish, etc., flavored with various spices or curry powder, and often eaten with rice.

2. any dish flavored with curry powder or the like.

   a lamb curry.

3. curry powder.

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verb (used with object)

curried, currying

1. to cook or flavor (food) with curry powder or a similar combination of spices.

   to curry eggs.

idioms

1. give (someone) a bit of curry, to rebuke, discipline, or criticize; harass.

curry ² American  

[kur-ee, kuhr-ee] / ˈkɜr i, ˈkʌr i /

verb (used with object)

curried, currying

1. to rub and clean (a horse) with a currycomb.

2. to dress (tanned hides) by soaking, scraping, beating, coloring, etc.

3. to beat; thrash.

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idioms

1. curry favor, to seek to advance oneself through flattery or fawning.

   His fellow workers despised him for currying favor with the boss.

Curry ³ American  

[kur-ee, kuhr-ee] / ˈkɜr i, ˈkʌr i /

noun

1. John (Anthony), 1949–94, British figure skater.

2. John Steuart 1897–1946, U.S. painter.

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curry ¹ British  

/ ˈkʌrɪ /

noun

1. a spicy dish of oriental, esp Indian, origin that is made in many ways but usually consists of meat or fish prepared in a hot piquant sauce

2. curry seasoning or sauce

3. slang to assault (a person) verbally or physically

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verb

1. (tr) to prepare (food) with curry powder or sauce

curry ² British  

/ ˈkʌrɪ /

verb

1. to beat vigorously, as in order to clean

2. to dress and finish (leather) after it has been tanned to make it strong, flexible, and waterproof

3. to groom (a horse)

4. to ingratiate oneself, esp with superiors

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Curry ³ British  

/ ˈkʌrɪ /

noun

1. John ( Anthony ). 1949–94, British ice skater: won the figure-skating gold medal in the 1976 Olympic Games

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• curries
  plural

Etymology

Origin of curry¹

First recorded in 1590–1600, from Tamil kaṟi “sauce, relish”

Origin of curry²

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English curreien, curraien, curry, from Anglo-French curreier, Old French corroier, earlier conreer “to make ready,” from Vulgar Latin conrēdāre (unrecorded); see origin at corody

Explanation

Curry is a South Asian-style dish of vegetables or meat in a very flavorful, spicy sauce. You can try many types of curry in an Indian restaurant. There are different curries from different parts of Asia — a Thai curry, for example, might consist of shrimp and vegetables in a rich yellow sauce. When curry is a verb, it can mean "make curry," but it's more commonly "groom a horse." A curry comb, in fact, is specially made for this purpose. This curry comes from the Anglo-French curreier, "to comb a horse," while the dish has a Tamil root, kari, "sauce."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

curry Curry curries curried currying

People in prison confess to crimes, regardless of innocence, for any manner of reasons: because they are coerced, because their memories are unclear, to curry favor, for attention.

From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026

While many curry houses remain, the street and the surrounding neighbourhood is transforming, in part to help power the capital's digital infrastructure boom.

From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026

Dropping tens of thousands of dollars on a watch is a good way to curry favor with sales assistants who allocate Birkins to clients.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2026

"We have jerk pork, we have rice and peas, we have jerk chicken, curry goat, stewed chicken, fried dumpling and plantain," she said.

From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026

Elizabeth is right beside me, using prepackaged naan Mama heated on the stove to soak up the curry.

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

And you can’t leave Berlin without trying a currywurst from Curry 36.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026

Curry Barker knew he was making a good movie when he directed "Obsession" -- but he never expected it to become a box office phenomenon that would make Hollywood obsessed with him.

From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026

In his estimation, doomsday is now more likely than Stephen Curry missing a free throw.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026

His castmate Richard O'Brien asked him to audition for his new musical, The Rocky Horror Show, the iconic 1973 role in which Curry uttered the line "don't dream it, be it".

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

When Apu became a restaurateur, he called his restaurant Curry in a Hurry. rhythm.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

A treat for anyone who loves a little wordplay: Can you think of an 11-letter phrase that describes some curries or romances?

From Slate ● Aug. 26, 2026

Smoky, charcoal-grilled meats and fragrant wok-cooked tomato curries sizzling over an open flame.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

"You will see fast food, Indian breads and curries, desserts, and whatever else people have been sending," said Kaanita, a 21-year-old student.

From Barron's ● Jul. 23, 2026

Teacher Kieron Fisher, who lives in Newbury, Berkshire, includes vegetables in meals his six-year-old twins Kit and Ollie already enjoy, such as curries and spaghetti Bolognese.

From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026

When it is night, you are cold and wish to be warm and dream of hot curries and wrap yourself in blankets.

From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel

Additional favorites include a homemade rotisserie chicken Caesar salad, an avocado and cilantro-forward salad and a curried chicken salad, complete with a mayo-based curry chutney dressing and whole cashews.

From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026

"For the next week we just had tuna every day, it was a bit like Forrest Gump and the shrimp, we had curried tuna, fried tuna, battered tuna, beer-battered tuna, raw tuna."

From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026

He curried favor in Abu Dhabi by backing a local tech incubator and building personal ties to the royals via a circle of well-connected friends on the city’s luxurious Saadiyat island.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025

Once identified among the intelligentsia as a “reformicon” hoping to shift a neoconservative GOP toward a pro-working-class direction, Salam had long curried liberal affection as “literary Brooklyn’s favorite conservative.”

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2024

Ali had served dinner earlier—potatoes and curried cauliflower over rice—and had retired for the night with Hassan.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

And I’d say that currying the favor of 84% is still pretty darn good.

From Salon ● Mar. 27, 2026

He first fought with the invading Japanese to oust Britain, before swapping sides as the tide of war changed and currying favour with London for the cause of independence.

From Barron's ● Dec. 23, 2025

At the temple, Prapakaran, the software engineer, walked 11 circles around the inner sanctum, part of the ritual for currying favor with the Visa God.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2025

The perfect venue, the CEO of the Chinese hacking company thought, to hold a Lunar New Year banquet currying favor with government officials.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 7, 2024

It outraged him that the people who got credit for higher understanding were those who spent the most time currying favor with the media.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Related Words

• sauce
• seasoning