grace-and-favor

[ greys-uhn-fey-ver ]

adjective

1. noting a residence owned by a noble or sovereign and bestowed upon some person for that person's lifetime.

Word History and Origins

Origin of grace-and-favor¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

When we first meet her in this novel, it’s 1947, and the 40-something Elinor is living in the small English village of Shacklehurst in “a grace-and-favor” house gifted by the monarchy to people who have done extraordinary things for their country.

From Washington Post

In Lula’s case, he is accused of accepting a grace-and-favor apartment from a contractor, despite the lack of evidence that he has done so—indeed, in the prosecution’s argument, it is the very lack of evidence that is the proof of Lula’s guilt.

From The New Yorker

I remember going up in a part of St. Sulpice, for instance, that’s not open to the public, and people were living up there in grace-and-favor apartments until the 1970s and they would have parties, and there were still posters on the walls and things.

From Slate

“The government could afford a £12 million grace-and-favor penthouse in New York, but couldn’t spend money to rehouse Grenfell survivors,” Umaar Kazmi, a law student at the University of Nottingham, said on Twitter on Wednesday, referring to the 2017 fire at a high-rise building in London that killed more than 70 people.

From New York Times

Its twenty-odd rooms are separated into grace-and-favor apartments for those members of the faculty unable to find, or afford, other quarters.

From Literature