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

Three of these leaders looking to curry favor with the incoming administration donated $1 million apiece to Trump’s inaugural fund. —Megan Poinski, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2024

Companies currying favor have been replaced with those reacting to a climate of fear—of punishing lawsuits, of punitive regulatory reactions—fear that democracy is being replaced by a kind of klepto-feudalism. —Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 16 Dec. 2024

Trump has previously lashed out at both Meta and Amazon, among other Big Tech companies, and the donations by the two massive internet corporations are seen as efforts to curry favor with the incoming administration. —Todd Spangler, Variety, 13 Dec. 2024

Progressive media outlets are trying to curry favor with President-elect Trump, ruffling the feathers of their audiences. —Sara Fischer, Axios, 19 Nov. 2024

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