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
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Several of the party’s candidates scurried around the Anaheim convention center, trying to curry favor with the state’s most liberal activists while also drawing contrasts with their rivals. Seema Mehta, Los Angeles Times, 5 June 2025 No longer do foreign oligarchs, officials and others trying to curry favor with the man that can move global markets limit themselves to club memberships or expensive hotel rooms. New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 28 May 2025 The gala has been in the works for months — part of Trump's push to both reward and continue to curry favor with the crypto crowd. Rob Wile, NBC news, 22 May 2025 Several candidates seized on the Justice Department’s action to argue that New Yorkers should not replace Mayor Eric Adams, whose administration was upended by a federal inquiry, with a second politician who might have reasons to curry favor with President Trump. Nicholas Fandos, New York Times, 21 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for curry favor

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

Time Traveler
The first known use of curry favor was in 1557

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Cite this Entry

“Curry favor.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/curry%20favor. Accessed 19 Jun. 2025.

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