| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| favor |
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| SYLLABICATION: | fa·vor |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  f  v r |
| NOUN: | 1. A gracious, friendly, or obliging act that is freely granted: do someone a favor. 2a. Friendly or favorable regard; approval or support: won the favor of the monarch; looked with favor on the plan. b. A state of being held in such regard: a style currently in favor. 3. Unfair partiality; favoritism. 4a. A privilege or concession. b. favors Sexual privileges, especially as granted by a woman. 5a. Something given as a token of love, affection, or remembrance. b. A small decorative gift given to each guest at a party. 6. Advantage; benefit: sailed under favor of cloudless skies. 7. Behalf; interest: an error in our favor. 8. Obsolete A communication, especially a letter. 9. Archaic a. Aspect or appearance. b. Countenance; face. 10. Obsolete A facial feature. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: fa·vored, fa·vor·ing, fa·vors
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To perform a kindness or service for; oblige. See synonyms at oblige. 2. To treat or regard with friendship, approval, or support. 3. To be partial to; indulge a liking for: favors bright colors. 4. To be or tend to be in support of. 5. To make easier or more possible; facilitate: Darkness favored their escape. 6. To treat with care; be gentle with: favored my wounded leg. 7. Chiefly Southern U.S. To resemble in appearance: She favors her father. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | Chiefly Southern U.S. To resemble another in appearance: She and her father favor. | | IDIOM: | in favor of 1. In support of; approving: We are in favor of her promotion to president. 2. To the advantage of: The court decided in favor of the plaintiff. 3. Inscribed or made out to the benefit of: a check in favor of a charity. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old French, from Latin, from fav re, to be favorable. | | OTHER FORMS: | favor·er —NOUN
favor·ing·ly —ADVERB
| | REGIONAL NOTE: | When a Southerner favors a relative, he or she is not giving that person special privileges; rather, the Southerner looks like that relative. Favor can be either transitive—She favors her father—or intransitive with a compound subject: She and her father favor. This sense of favor goes back to early modern English: “This young lord Chamont/Favors my mother” (Ben Jonson). The verb derives from the noun favor, which was used from the 15th to the 19th century to mean “appearance, aspect; the countenance, face”: “What makes thy favor like the bloodless head/Fall'n on the block?” (Tennyson). This sense of the noun is now archaic, but the verb thrives in the English of the Southern United States.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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