curry favour
Verb (Phrasal Verb): * To attempt to gain approval, advantage, or special treatment from someone, especially a person in authority, through excessive praise, flattery, obsequious behavior, or attentiveness. The action often implies insincerity and is viewed as self-serving.
The phrase "curry favour" is used to describe the act of trying to win someone's favor through flattery and servile behavior. It carries a negative connotation, suggesting the behavior is not genuine but calculated for personal gain.
Basic Usage:
- He is always currying favour with the boss by complimenting her ideas.
- The new intern tried to curry favour by bringing coffee for everyone every morning.
- Politicians often curry favour with wealthy donors.
In Different Tenses:
- Present: She curries favour.
- Past: He curried favour.
- Continuous: They are currying favour.
- Future: She will try to curry favour.
- The object of the phrase is typically a person or group. The structure is "to curry favour with [someone]."
- The phrase is sometimes written as "curry favor" in American English, using the American spelling of "favor."
- It is considered a fixed idiom. You cannot "curry friendship" or "curry approval" in the same idiomatic sense, though those constructions might be understood literally.
- Fawn (verb): To display exaggerated flattery or affection. (e.g., )
- Sycophant (noun): A person who acts obsequiously toward someone important to gain advantage.
- Kowtow (verb): To act in an excessively subservient manner. (Literally, a Chinese act of deep respect shown by kneeling and bowing so low as to touch the head to the ground.)
- Brown-nose (verb, informal/vulgar): A very informal and direct synonym for currying favour.
- Flatter (to a purpose)
- Ingratiate oneself
- Suck up to (informal)
- Butter up (informal)
- Toady
- Alienate
- Offend
- Speak one's mind
- Stand up to
The phrase originates from a misunderstanding. It is not related to the spicy dish. It comes from the Old French phrase estriller fauvel, "to groom the fallow-colored horse," from a 14th-century French satirical poem, Roman de Fauvel, where Fauvel was a cunning fallow horse who symbolized duplicity. To "curry Fauvel" meant to groom or flatter this false figure, which evolved into the modern idiom "curry favour."
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seek favor by fawning or flattery
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This employee is currying favor with his superordinates
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