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Favor means approval or something you do for someone else. (noun)

An example of favor is when your daughter behaves correctly.
An example of favor is when you pick up the drycleaning for your husband so he doesn't have to.

Favor means to show preferential treatment and to act like you like someone better than others. (verb)

An example of favor is when a teacher always calls only on the students she likes.

See favor in Webster's New World College Dictionary

See favor in American Heritage Dictionary 4

(fāˈvər)

noun

A gracious, friendly, or obliging act that is freely granted: do someone a favor.
a. 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.
Unfair partiality; favoritism.
a. A privilege or concession.
b. favors Sexual privileges, especially as granted by a woman.
a. Something given as a token of love, affection, or remembrance.
b. A small decorative gift given to each guest at a party.
Advantage; benefit: sailed under favor of cloudless skies.
Behalf; interest: an error in our favor.
Obsolete A communication, especially a letter.
Archaic
a. Aspect or appearance.
b. Countenance; face.
Obsolete A facial feature.

verb fa·vored, fa·vor·ing, fa·vors

verb, transitive

To perform a kindness or service for; oblige. See Synonyms at oblige.
To treat or regard with friendship, approval, or support.
To be partial to; indulge a liking for: favors bright colors.
To be or tend to be in support of.
To make easier or more possible; facilitate: Darkness favored their escape.
To treat with care; be gentle with: favored my wounded leg.
Chiefly Southern U.S. To resemble in appearance: She favors her father.

verb, intransitive
Chiefly Southern U.S.

To resemble another in appearance: She and her father favor.

Related Forms:

faˈvor·er noun

faˈvor·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.

favor

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