curry favor

phrase

: to seek to gain favor by flattery or attention

… eager to curry favor with superiors by reporting any trivial transgression.

—Robert Wallace and H. Keith Meltony

Instead of rolling back environmental regulations to curry favor with corporate interests, California has passed the toughest green laws in the nation …

—Alexander Nazaryan

Examples of curry favor in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

For donors, Kousser said contributions offered the hope of currying favor with a possible future governor. — Ben Paviour, Sacbee.com, 8 July 2026

Hoping to curry favor in the office? — Usa Today, USA Today, 12 Apr. 2026

Emails show that Epstein would curry favor within his circle of close friends by name-dropping Mottola. — Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 2 Apr. 2026

The map illustrated a letter by Cortés, currying favor with the Habsburg Emperor Charles the Fifth. — Big Think, 1 Apr. 2026

The following story embroils everyone involved in a complicated game of currying favor in their world of an elite country club. — Madeleine Janz, PEOPLE, 1 Apr. 2026

Buying access to Trump in exchange for campaign donations is only one of several ways to curry favor with the president. — Daniel Weiner, Time, 9 Mar. 2026

Yet, the gambling companies such as DraftKings and FanDuel are pumping big money into legislative campaigns right now to curry favor with lawmakers. — Jim Nowlan, Chicago Tribune, 5 Mar. 2026

Cote said the only two defendants accused by Donlon of sharing motivations to take him down were Daughtry and Sheppard, who Donlon alleged were driven by envy and a desire to curry favor with the mayor. — Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News, 19 Feb. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Note: The idiom curry favor is an alteration by folk etymology of curry favell, Middle English core favele, currey favel "to use insincere flattery to gain personal advantage," literally, "to curry the fallow-colored horse," a translation of Middle French estriller/torchier Fauvel "to use trickery, deceive," literally, "to curry/clean Fauvel" ("the fallow one," as a name for a horse). Old & Middle French falve, fauve "brownish-yellow, light brown (of an animal's coat)" and its derivatives have the additional meaning "false, hypocritical," probably in part due to the similarity in sound to faux "false"; hence la fauve asnele (ca. 1170) "hypocrisy, falsehood" (literally, "the fallow ass"), fauvoier (13th century) "to deceive," Old Occitan falveta "art of beguiling." Fauvel and Fauvain as horse's names are the focus of various idioms, as estriller Fauvel "to curry Fauvel," that denote duplicitous behavior. In the satirical French poem, Roman de Fauvel, composed ca. 1310-16, a horse or donkey named Fauvel becomes king by the grace of Fortuna ("Lady Fortune") and, having taken possession of the palace stable, is curried and cleaned by the hypocritical nobility and clergy of the realm.

First Known Use

1557, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for curry favor

• aver
• braver
• craver
• favour
• flavor
• flavour
• graver
• paver
• quaver
• raver
• saver
• savor