Meaning & use
curry favor
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiom
To try to win someone's goodwill by flattery or by doing things to please them, usually for personal gain.
Grammar: Used with with: curry favor with the boss.
Patterns
- curry favor with someone
- try to curry favor
He brought donuts every Friday to curry favor with the manager.
Politicians often curry favor with voters before an election.
She was accused of currying favor with the teacher to get better grades.
Word forms
| third person singular | curries favor |
|---|---|
| past tense | curried favor |
| past participle | curried favor |
| -ing form | currying favor |
Common combinations
- curry favor with the boss
- Nobody liked how he tried to curry favor with the boss.
- try to curry favor
- The senator tried to curry favor with big donors.
- curry favor with voters
- Candidates curry favor with voters by promising lower taxes.
- curry favor by flattery
- He curried favor by praising everything she did.
- accused of currying favor
- The adviser was accused of currying favor with the king.
Synonyms and how they differ
- flatter
- Flatter means to praise someone insincerely, but curry favor includes any behavior meant to win approval.
- suck up
- Suck up is a rude informal phrase with the same meaning and a harsher tone.
- ingratiate yourself
- Ingratiate yourself is more formal and describes the same effort to be liked, with a similar critical tone.
Opposites
Word family
- favor noun
- an act of kindness or approval
- favorite adjective
- preferred above others
- favoritism noun
- unfair preference shown to one person
- favorable adjective
- showing approval or advantage
Commonly confused: curry favor or curry?
curry favor vs curry
Here curry has nothing to do with the spicy dish. It comes from an old word meaning to groom a horse, so the idiom's spelling must stay as curry.
Practice
Why might someone curry favor with a manager?
Choose one answer.
Currying favor means seeking goodwill, usually for personal gain. Criticizing or avoiding the manager would be the opposite.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “curry favor”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.