"curry favor" meaning in All languages combined

See curry favor on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Audio: en-au-curry favor.ogg Forms: curries favor [present, singular, third-person], currying favor [participle, present], curried favor [participle, past], curried favor [past]
Etymology: Originally from a French poem Roman de Fauvel, written in the early 1300s; Fauvel was a conniving stallion, and the play was a satire on the corruption of social life. The name Fauvel points to the French fauve (“chestnut, reddish-yellow, or fawn”), another sense of fauve meaning the class of wild animals whose coats are at least partly brown, and the medieval belief that a fallow horse was a symbol of deceit and dishonesty. The phrase curry Fauvel, then, referred to currying (“combing”) the horse, and was altered (as folk etymology) by later speakers to curry favor. Etymology templates: {{der|en|fr|fauve|t=chestnut, reddish-yellow, or fawn}} French fauve (“chestnut, reddish-yellow, or fawn”), {{glossary|folk etymology}} folk etymology Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} curry favor (third-person singular simple present curries favor, present participle currying favor, simple past and past participle curried favor)
  1. (idiomatic) To seek to gain favor by flattery or attention. Wikipedia link: Roman de Fauvel Tags: idiomatic Synonyms: curry favour [British] Related terms: fauvism Translations (to seek to gain favor by flattery): ဖော်လံဖား (hpaulamhpa:) (Burmese), ဖား (hpa:) (Burmese), ဘောမ (bhau:ma.) (Burmese), 巴結 /巴结 (bājie) (Chinese Mandarin), een wit voetje halen (Dutch), slijmen (Dutch), mielistellä (Finnish), flatter (French), cirer les bottes (French), sich einschmeicheln (German), sich anbiedern (english: exalted) (German), sich einschleimen [informal] (German), 機嫌を取る (kigen o toru) (alt: きげんをとる) (Japanese), 胡麻をする (goma o suru) (alt: ごまをする) (Japanese), whakaporepore (Maori), заи́скивать (zaískivatʹ) [imperfective] (Russian), подли́зываться (podlízyvatʹsja) [imperfective] (Russian), yaltaklanmak (Turkish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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        {
          "ref": "1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:",
          "text": "[…]always promising to pay, promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent; seeking to curry favor, to get custom, by how many modes, only not state-prison offences;[…]",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVIII, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):",
          "text": "Other people would say so, and would allege that he was currying favor with Bulstrode for the sake of making himself important and getting on in the world.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1896, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 1, in Tom Sawyer, Detective:",
          "text": "Poor old Uncle Silas—why, it’s pitiful, him trying to curry favor that way—so hard pushed and poor, and yet hiring that useless Jubiter Dunlap to please his ornery brother.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, Upton Sinclair, The Profits of Religion […] :",
          "text": "And what of those thousands and tens of thousands who join the church because it is a part of the regime of respectability, a way to make the acquaintance of the rich, to curry favor and obtain promotion, to get customers if you are a tradesman, to extend your practice if you are a professional man?",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "2017 October 2, Julia Ioffe, Franklin Foer, “Did Manafort Use Trump to Curry Favor With a Putin Ally?”, in The Atlantic:",
          "text": "[T]he full text of these exchanges, provided to The Atlantic, shows that Manafort attempted to leverage his leadership role in the Trump campaign to curry favor with a Russian oligarch close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-01-28:",
          "text": "Unlike Sansa, Daenerys can’t rely on her family name to curry favor; unlike Jon or even Arya, she can’t regale the Northerners with tales of exploits, though that’s probably for the best when it comes to her “liberating” Yunkai and Meereen.",
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        "To seek to gain favor by flattery or attention."
      ],
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        [
          "seek",
          "seek"
        ],
        [
          "gain",
          "gain"
        ],
        [
          "favor",
          "favor"
        ],
        [
          "flattery",
          "flattery"
        ],
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          "attention",
          "attention"
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        "(idiomatic) To seek to gain favor by flattery or attention."
      ],
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          "tags": [
            "British"
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          "word": "curry favour"
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          "code": "my",
          "lang": "Burmese",
          "roman": "hpaulamhpa:",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "ဖော်လံဖား"
        },
        {
          "code": "my",
          "lang": "Burmese",
          "roman": "hpa:",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
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          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "ဘောမ"
        },
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          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "bājie",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "巴結 /巴结"
        },
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          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "een wit voetje halen"
        },
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          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "slijmen"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "mielistellä"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "flatter"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "cirer les bottes"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "sich einschmeicheln"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "english": "exalted",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "sich anbiedern"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "tags": [
            "informal"
          ],
          "word": "sich einschleimen"
        },
        {
          "alt": "きげんをとる",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "kigen o toru",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "機嫌を取る"
        },
        {
          "alt": "ごまをする",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "goma o suru",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "胡麻をする"
        },
        {
          "code": "mi",
          "lang": "Maori",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "whakaporepore"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "zaískivatʹ",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "заи́скивать"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "podlízyvatʹsja",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "подли́зываться"
        },
        {
          "code": "tr",
          "lang": "Turkish",
          "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
          "word": "yaltaklanmak"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Roman de Fauvel"
      ]
    }
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  ],
  "word": "curry favor"
}
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        "present",
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        "third-person"
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    },
    {
      "form": "currying favor",
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        "participle",
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    {
      "form": "curried favor",
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    {
      "form": "curried favor",
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      "args": {
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      "word": "fauvism"
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        "Terms with German translations",
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        "Terms with Mandarin translations",
        "Terms with Maori translations",
        "Terms with Russian translations",
        "Terms with Turkish translations"
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        {
          "ref": "1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:",
          "text": "[…]always promising to pay, promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent; seeking to curry favor, to get custom, by how many modes, only not state-prison offences;[…]",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XVIII, in Middlemarch […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book (please specify |book=I to VIII):",
          "text": "Other people would say so, and would allege that he was currying favor with Bulstrode for the sake of making himself important and getting on in the world.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1896, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 1, in Tom Sawyer, Detective:",
          "text": "Poor old Uncle Silas—why, it’s pitiful, him trying to curry favor that way—so hard pushed and poor, and yet hiring that useless Jubiter Dunlap to please his ornery brother.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1917, Upton Sinclair, The Profits of Religion […] :",
          "text": "And what of those thousands and tens of thousands who join the church because it is a part of the regime of respectability, a way to make the acquaintance of the rich, to curry favor and obtain promotion, to get customers if you are a tradesman, to extend your practice if you are a professional man?",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 October 2, Julia Ioffe, Franklin Foer, “Did Manafort Use Trump to Curry Favor With a Putin Ally?”, in The Atlantic:",
          "text": "[T]he full text of these exchanges, provided to The Atlantic, shows that Manafort attempted to leverage his leadership role in the Trump campaign to curry favor with a Russian oligarch close to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 5, Danette Chavez, “Campaigns are Waged On and Off the Game Of Thrones Battlefield (Newbies)”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 2021-01-28:",
          "text": "Unlike Sansa, Daenerys can’t rely on her family name to curry favor; unlike Jon or even Arya, she can’t regale the Northerners with tales of exploits, though that’s probably for the best when it comes to her “liberating” Yunkai and Meereen.",
          "type": "quote"
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      ],
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        "To seek to gain favor by flattery or attention."
      ],
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          "gain",
          "gain"
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        [
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          "favor"
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        [
          "flattery",
          "flattery"
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          "attention",
          "attention"
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To seek to gain favor by flattery or attention."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
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        "Roman de Fauvel"
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
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      "word": "curry favour"
    }
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "my",
      "lang": "Burmese",
      "roman": "hpaulamhpa:",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "ဖော်လံဖား"
    },
    {
      "code": "my",
      "lang": "Burmese",
      "roman": "hpa:",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "ဖား"
    },
    {
      "code": "my",
      "lang": "Burmese",
      "roman": "bhau:ma.",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "ဘောမ"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "bājie",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "巴結 /巴结"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "een wit voetje halen"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "slijmen"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "mielistellä"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "flatter"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "cirer les bottes"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "sich einschmeicheln"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "english": "exalted",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "sich anbiedern"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ],
      "word": "sich einschleimen"
    },
    {
      "alt": "きげんをとる",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "kigen o toru",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "機嫌を取る"
    },
    {
      "alt": "ごまをする",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "goma o suru",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "胡麻をする"
    },
    {
      "code": "mi",
      "lang": "Maori",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "whakaporepore"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "zaískivatʹ",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "заи́скивать"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "podlízyvatʹsja",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "подли́зываться"
    },
    {
      "code": "tr",
      "lang": "Turkish",
      "sense": "to seek to gain favor by flattery",
      "word": "yaltaklanmak"
    }
  ],
  "word": "curry favor"
}

Download raw JSONL data for curry favor meaning in All languages combined (7.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (4ba5975 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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