Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb idiomatic To seek to gain favor by flattery or attention.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb seek favor by fawning or flattery

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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 flattering the horse, and was turned by later speakers into curry favor.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word curry favor.

Examples

    Sorry, no example sentences found.

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.