Choose the correct meaning of idiom: Currying favour

Correct — B. To curry favour with someone is to try to win their approval by flattery or eager, obsequious attention.

The motive is self-interest: you praise the boss hoping to get something back.

That is seeking approval through flattery → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Seeking emotional validation — Emotional validation is reassurance that your feelings are understood. Currying favour is not about feelings; it is about winning advantage by flattering someone.
• (c)
  Avoiding direct confrontation — Avoiding confrontation means sidestepping a clash. Currying favour is an active effort to please someone, not a way of dodging an argument.
• (d)
  Asking for forgiveness subtly — Forgiveness plays no part in the idiom. A person currying favour is not apologising for anything, only flattering to get into someone's good books.

Curry favour means to try to gain someone's approval through flattery, usually for your own benefit. Close equivalents are ingratiate oneself, fawn on and, informally, suck up to.

The word curry here is not the dish. It is an old verb meaning to groom a horse, the one still heard in currycomb.

The idiom usually takes with: she tried to curry favour with the new manager.

Key facts

• Curry favour with someone means to seek their approval through flattery or obsequious attention.
• Curry in this idiom is the verb for grooming a horse, as in currycomb, not the food.
• Close equivalents: ingratiate oneself, fawn on, suck up to.

Common traps

• Linking curry to food and hunting for a meaning about spice or trouble
• Choosing emotional validation because both involve approval, and missing that flattery is the defining element

No directly related past PYQ was found.