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

See Examples For:

curry favor

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

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

And what are the incentives for Republican lawmakers to curry favor with these figures?

From Slate ● May 7, 2026

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 ● Dec. 31, 2025

Riders would be after them within the day, birds would take wing, and surely one of the river lords would want to curry favor with his father enough to take a hand.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin