curry favor

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.”

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

But behind them are ISIS fighters and sympathizers and locals eager to curry favor by selling out their neighbors.

From The Daily Beast

To that end, and perhaps to curry favor with sitting leaders, Kadyrov has come down harshly against the Arab Spring.

From The Daily Beast

Gilad Sharon said the resignation was designed to curry favor with hardliners.

From The Daily Beast

The company has dispensed more than $42 million since 2001 trying to curry favor with lawmakers and regulators.

From The Daily Beast

GOP candidates are running from their records to curry favor with conservatives.

From The Daily Beast

I asked him straight out if it was to curry favor with the frat.

From Project Gutenberg

A certain sycophant, thinking to curry favor with Johnson, took to laughing loud and long at everything he said.

From Project Gutenberg

There was no attempt to curry favor with the officers of the camp, and one admired the English tremendously for that.

From Project Gutenberg

They have heard he isn't coming and they think to curry favor with the great man by stopping away.

From Project Gutenberg

Notwithstanding its disagreeable position it does its utmost to curry favor of its oppressors.

From Project Gutenberg