court favour

Thân thiện

The employee is trying to court favour by offering to help with extra tasks.

Definition

Verb phrase: - To deliberately try to gain someone's approval or preferential treatment, typically through insincere praise, excessive attentiveness, or flattery.

Usage

• This phrase describes the act of ingratiating oneself to a person in authority or influence.
• It often carries a negative connotation, implying the behavior is self-serving and not genuine.
• It is used with a direct object (the person whose favor is being sought).

Examples

Advanced Usage

• The phrase can be used in continuous tenses to emphasize the ongoing nature of the behavior.
• It can be followed by prepositional phrases like "with someone" or "from someone."
  • She spent the entire conference courting favour with potential investors.

Variants and Related Words

• Court favor (verb phrase): The American English spelling variant.
• Curry favour (verb phrase): A synonymous phrase with identical meaning and usage. (Note: This is a separate, distinct phrase listed for reference).
• Fawn (verb): To display exaggerated affection or flattery.
• Ingratiate oneself (verb phrase): To bring oneself into favor with someone through deliberate effort.

Synonyms

• Butter up (informal)
• Suck up to (informal)
• Flatter
• Brown-nose (vulgar slang)

Related Idioms

• Apple-polishing: (Informal) Behaving in a servile or flattering way to gain favor.
• Play up to someone: To flatter or try to please someone, especially to gain an advantage.

Học thuật

Verb

1. seek favor by fawning or flattery
   • This employee is currying favor with his superordinates

Từ đồng nghĩa

• curry favor
• curry favour
• court favor