curry favor

Cultural  

1. “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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curry favor Idioms  

1. 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

He was sent to Rome in 1488 as a gesture of cultural diplomacy by Lorenzo, who hoped to curry favor from Carafa and thereby secure his vote for his son to become the next pope.

From The Wall Street Journal

Hence, it is reasonable to think they will use January to tidy up their affairs and reset investor expectations to curry favor with Elliott.

From Barron's

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 Literature

That could curry favor with the 46% of consumers in the U.S.,

From The Wall Street Journal

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