curry favor

idiomatic 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

The Mayor’s Fund, which started under former Mayor Eric Garcetti to pay for civic programs, has faced criticism in the past for giving the impression that people could use their donations to curry favor in the mayor’s office. —Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2024

This campaign lets the player curry favor with the larger forces in the Imperium such as the Spacing Guild or the Bene Gesserit. —Rob Wieland, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2024

The only ones in attendance who aren't there to curry favor or propel themselves further in the industry are Mary, now a disgruntled theater critic who lambasts Frank for selling out, and his wife Gussie Carnegie (Krystal Joy Brown). —Emlyn Travis, EW.com, 10 Oct. 2023

Biden's administration already signed off on arguably the most contentious oil and gas projects earlier in his tenure, so the potential to curry favor with environmentalists and younger voters on climate is limited. —Dan Eberhart, Forbes, 17 Feb. 2024

The guidelines were intended to shield the identities of buyers of Mr. Biden’s art to avoid the perception that their purchases could curry favor with the Biden administration. —Michael S. Schmidt, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2024

Washington's foes can now use public opinion to their advantage, as do Hamas and Hezbollah, or curry favor with rival powers, as Iran has tried to do with Brazil, China, and Turkey. —Robert Malley, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2010

His family alleges the arrest was made to curry favor with Beijing. —Christian Shepherd, Washington Post, 10 Dec. 2023

The 69-year-old’s outsider campaign has curried favor with some members of the far-right for disavowing aspects of U.S. history while touting vaccine conspiracy theories. —Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, The New Republic, 18 Oct. 2023

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