Favour, favor v.

Forms: 4 favore, favure, 4–6 faver, 4–7 favoure, (5 favoryn, favir, Sc. fawowr), 9 dial. favver, 5– favour, favor. [a. OF. favorer, med.L. favōrāre, f. favōrem: see FAVOUR sb.]

  1.  trans. To regard with favour, look kindly upon; to be inclined to, have a liking or preference for; to approve.

1340–70.  Alex. & Dind., 740. Whi fauure ȝe þanne falce godus?

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 13948.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Macc. xiv. 24. He loued Iudas euer with his hert, and fauoured him.

1580.  Baret, Alv., F 251. Not fauouring learning, not minding, auersus a Musis.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, V. § 495. Men fauour Wonders.

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., II. iv. § 4. Josephus seems to favour the division of the City into three parts.

1780.  J. Harris, Philol. Enq., Wks. (1841), 485. They were fond of the fabulous and allegorical, and loved to represent under that form the doctrines they most favoured.

1793.  Burke, Conduct of the Minority, Wks. 1842, I. 620. That party which Mr. Fox inclined most to favour.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 113. God favour and preserve him.

1873.  Burton, Hist. Scot., V. lx. 285. It was one of the difficulties in the case to find what religion he favoured.

  2.  To show favour to; to treat kindly; to countenance, encourage, patronize; † to indulge (oneself, a feeling).

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. III. 81. Rynges with Rubyes · þe Regratour to fauere.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 489. Faveriden hem in þese open errouris.

c. 1475.  Rauf Coilȝear, 903. Now haue I ferlie, gif I fauour the ocht.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), K j b. Yf she be good, he ought to fauer her, that she may be the better.

1549.  Coverdale, Erasm. Par. Rom., vii. 7. This wyse therfore fauoryng my selfe, I was in manner ignoraunt.

1553.  T. Wilson, Rhet. (1580), 78. Man onely … ceaseth not to favour his sorowe.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 22. William … favoured them by giftes and easy lawes.

1611.  Bible, Ps. cii. 13. The time to fauour her, yea the set time is come.

1655.  Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 193. I beseech you therefore, if those letters be not yet arrived, fauor me soe much as to hint unto his Ma^ty my misfortune.

1736.  Butler, Anal., II. vi. If there be a strong bias within … to favour the deceit.

1806.  Med. Jrnl., XV. 112. If he will ‘favor me,’ by perusing my last communication.

1857.  Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc., I. 210. The former [John the Grammarian] was favoured by Amrou, the conqueror of Egypt.

1870.  Max Müller, Introduction to the Science of Religion (1873), 38. No other religion, with the exception, perhaps of early Buddhism, would have favoured the idea of an impartial comparison of the principal religions of the world—would ever have tolerated our science.

  † b.  To indulge with permission (to do something). Obs.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 5101. A fole to be fauoret folili to speke.

1605.  Play Stucley, 50, in Simpson, Sch. Shaks. (1878), I. 160.

  c.  To indulge or oblige (a person) with something. I am favoured with: often used as a courteous form of acknowledgement.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., I. i. 4. Fortune … fauored[e] me wiþ lyȝte goodes.

1655–60.  T. Stanley, Hist. Philos. (1701), 14/2. The manner of his death gave Laertius occasion to favour him with this Epigram.

1717.  Wodrow Corr. (1843), II. 308. I am favoured with yours of the 10th August.

1793.  T. Twining, in Country Clergym. 18th. C. (1882), 185. A lady … was asked to ‘favour us with a song.’

1829.  Lytton, Devereux, II. v. Mr. Fielding having twice favoured me with visits, which found me from home, I thought it right to pay my respects to him.

1832.  Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, iv. 48. Agriculture has … been favoured with many privileges.

1842.  A. Combe, Physiol. Digestion (ed. 4), p. xxiv. Having … been early favoured with a copy of the original work.

  † 3.  intr. To show favour to, unto. Obs.

1393.  Gower, Conf., II. 77. She to nouther part favoureth.

1548.  Hall, Chron., 98 b. All those that have … favoured unto his said uncle of Winchester.

  4.  trans. To treat with partiality. Also, to side with, take the part of.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 1171. Heiȝh king of heuene for þi holy name, ne fauore nouȝt so my [fo].

c. 1425.  Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xxviii.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), B iij b. I shall haue many wylle fauoure me in the same, that there was neuer in the worlde so moche people teachynge vertue, and soo fewe folowynge the same.

1580.  Baret, Alv., F 251. He fauoured Cateline.

1635.  R. N., Camden’s Hist. Eliz. (1688), Introduction. Margaret of Alencon … favoured the Protestan’s Religion.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 23. Uncertain which o’ th’ two to favour.

1734.  trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. 170. Antigonus suspecting … that he favoured Cassander.

Mod.  The examiner was accused of having favoured his own pupils.

  b.  Comm. In market reports of a commodity: To be at prices favourable to (buyers, sellers).

1890.  Daily News, 8 Jan., 2/6. Oats favour buyers.

  5.  To aid, support; to show oneself propitious to.

1595.  T. Maynarde, Drake’s Voy. (Hakluyt Soc.), 23. God favoringe me, they [the Spanish ships] would have bin mine.

1601.  ? Marston, Pasquil & Katherine, I. 258.

1783.  Watson, Philip III., II. (1839), 65. They were secretly favoured by Henry IV.

1793.  Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 143. If Providence should so far favour the allied arms, that the whole of the French Netherlands should be reduced, the restitution of all kinds of ecclesiastical estates would form a very essential resource for many that are upon your and upon our hands.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 21 May, 6/1. The willingness of the House … to favour its progress.

  absol.  1393.  Gower, Conf., III. 213.

1435.  Misyn, Fire of Love, II. ii. 71. Criste favirand.

1563.  B. Googe, Eglogs (Arb.), 99.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Æneid, I. 522.

1878.  Browning, La Saisiaz, 177.

  b.  Of a circumstance, fact, etc.: To lend confirmation or support to (a belief, doctrine, rarely, a person); to point in the direction of.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 210. The sentence also of the prophete Osee fauoureth moche (as me semeth) that it sholde be so.

1655.  Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, I. iv. § 9. This relation is favoured by the name of Litchfield, which in the British tongue signifies a Golgotha, or place bestrewed with Skulls.

1659.  Hammond, On Ps. xxvii. 12. And herein the sense favours them there, and our translation hath followed them.

1710.  Steele, Tatler, No. 209, 10 Aug., ¶ 1. Every Circumstance imaginable favoured this Suspicion.

1771.  Junius, Lett. lxviii. 337. His opinion … appears to favour you.

1808.  Med. Jrnl., XIX. 105. Seems to favour the opinion of Mr. Pott.

1884.  Ld. Selborne, in Law Times’ Rep., 19 April, 229/2. Those cases which favour the doctrine.

1887.  C. C. Abbott, Waste-Land Wand., ii. 22. Although every indication favored rain, yet there was a chance that it might not, and these ‘chances’ prove so often to be delightful days that I always take them.

  6.  Of circumstances, weather, etc.: To prove advantageous to (a person); to be the means of promoting (an operation or process); to facilitate.

1634.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 12. That night not favouring us, we cast anchor.

1699.  Dampier, Voy., II. II. 29. If the Wind favours them any thing they will get as high as Cape Corientes before they fall in with Cuba.

1709.  Addison, Tatler, No. 97, 22 Nov., ¶ 2. He one day retired into a desert, where the Silence and Solitude of the Place very much favoured his Meditations. Ibid. (1710), The Whig-Examiner, No. 4. There is no one Place about it weaker than another, to favour an Enemy in his Approaches.

1786.  W. Thomson, Watson’s Philip III., v. (1793), II. 115. The darkness of the night favoured the enterprise.

1833.  Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 210. The argillaceous stratum … by its yielding nature, favoured the waste and undermining of the more solid superincumbent limestone.

1862.  Ansted & Latham, Channel Isl., III. xvi. (ed. 2), 379. They had been favoured by the wind.

1875.  Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., i. (ed. 5), 10. The unity of the Empire, and the ease of communication through its parts, had favoured the spread of Christianity: persecution had scattered the seeds more widely, had forced on it a firm organization, had given it martyr-heroes and a history.

  absol.  a. 1440.  Found. St. Barthol., 44. Marchauntys of fflaundrys … faueryng the see, purposid to Lundone.

  7.  To deal gently with; to avoid overtasking (a limb); to ease, save, spare. Now colloq. (esp. in stable parlance) and dial.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 263. Fauour thy body.

1589.  R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1590), 16. A Preacher, if his conceipt be any thing swift, that he can rolle it in the pulpit, must haue his reader at his elbow, to fauor his voice.

1617.  Markham, Cavelarice, II. 42. When a horse doth stand but firme vpon … three feete, or three feete, heauing and fauoring the other, it is an euill signe of a churlish disposition.

1667.  Pepys, Diary (1877), V. 361. Walking in the dark, in the garden, to favour my eyes.

1711.  Budgell, Spect., No. 150, 22 Aug., ¶ 12. He had a thread-bare loose Coat on, which it was plain he wore to keep himself warm, and not to favour his under Suit, which seemed to have been at least its Contemporary.

1712.  Swift, Lett., lxxxi, 25 Jan. He [a painter] has favoured her squint admirably; and you know I love a cast in the eye.

1792.  Osbaldiston, Brit. Sportsman, 228/2. He will set his foot on the ground warily, and endeavour to favour it.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, i. This habit … favours my infirmity.

1837.  C. M. Goodridge, Voy. S. Seas (1843), 55. This [oil-can] … favoured our other cooking apparatus.

1884.  Upton Gloss., ‘He seems to favour the off foreleg.’

  8.  To resemble in face or features; rarely, to resemble generally, have the look of. Now colloq.

1609.  B. Jonson, Case is Altered, III. iii.

1690.  W. Walker, Idiomat. Anglo-Lat., 176. He favours you in the face.

1712.  Steele, Spectator, No. 398, 6 June, ¶ 1. The Gentleman favoured his Master.

1824.  L. Murray, Eng. Gram. (ed. 5), I. 431. ‘The manager, in countenance, favoured his friend.’ It should have been, ‘resembled his friend.’

1866.  S. Laycock, in Harland, Lanc. Lyrics, 191. Tha favvers thi dad!

1867.  Waugh, Dulesgate, 19. ‘Conto make ’em eawt?’ ‘Nawe … but they favour’n Todmorden chaps.’