Curry Favour
Preserved but no longer current.
A corruption of the M.E. to curry favel, to rub down Favel: Favel (or Fauvel) being the name of the horse in the 14th- century French satire Roman de Fauvel, which was a kind of counterpart to the more famous romance, Reynard the Fox.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Curry Favour” mean?
A corruption of the M.E. to curry favel, to rub down Favel: Favel (or Fauvel) being the name of the horse in the 14th- century French satire Roman de Fauvel, which was a kind of counterpart to the more famous romance, Reynard the Fox.
Is “Curry Favour” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.