▪ I. disfavour, -or, n.
(dɪsˈfeɪvə(r))
[f. dis- 9 + favour n., prob. after obs. F. desfaveur ‘disfauor; want or losse of fauour’ (Cotgr.); cf. It. disfavore ‘a disfauour’ (Florio), Sp. desfavor.]
1. The reverse or opposite of favour; unfavourable regard, dislike, discountenance, disapproval.
| a 1533 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. xix. (R.) Ye women..with a littel disfauour ye recouer great hatred. 1535 Coverdale Prov. xix. 12 The kynges disfauoure is like y⊇ roaringe of a Lyon. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. viii. vi. §12. 395 Robert Gemeticensis..spread the Curtaine of disfauour betwixt Goodwin and the King. 1665 Wither Lord's Prayer 27 Not knowing how to please one of their faigned gods without incurring the disfavour of another. 1787 Bentham Def. Usury Wks. 1843 III. 17 The disfavour which attends the cause of the money-lender in his competition with the borrower. 1863 Longfellow Wayside Inn ii. Theol. T. viii, At the gate the poor were waiting..Grown familiar with disfavor. 1868 M. Pattison Academ. Org. v. 169 The name of ‘professor’ will never lose its disfavour until..associated among us with the dignity of a life devoted to science. |
† 2. An act or expression of dislike or ill will: the opposite of a favour. Obs.
| 1556 Aurelio & Isab. (1608) B, A thousand disfavours and a thousande woes. 1598 Yong Diana 277 When I..had so many disfauours of ingratefull Diana. a 1631 Donne Serm. lxxxiv. VI. 403, I never needed my mistresses frowns and disfavours to make her favours acceptable to me. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 20/2 He might dispense favours and disfavours according to his own election. |
3. The condition of being unfavourably regarded. Hence to be (live, etc.) in disfavour, to bring, come, fall, etc. into disfavour.
| 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. ii. (1586) 53 Devising how to bring some Officer into the disfavour of his Prince. 1600 Holland Livy xxvi. xl. 615 Hee was in disgrace and disfavour with Hanno. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 281 This earl lost the love of king Charles, living many years in his dis-favour. 1669 Pepys Diary 7 Apr., Mr. Eden, who was in his mistress's disfavour ever since the other night that he come in thither fuddled. 1849 Lewis Author. in Matters Opin. vi. §11 (L.) The disfavour into which it [the government] may have fallen. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. (1865) I. iii. xix. 259 The poor young Prince..had fallen into open disfavour. |
4. in (the) disfavour of, to the disfavour of: to the disadvantage of, so as to be unfavourable to.
| 1590 Swinburne Testaments 125 The disposition is thereby void: and that in disfauour of the testator. 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 99 He was not bounde to obey, if it were in his disfavour. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 211 ¶3 Acquaintance has been lost through a general Prepossession in his Disfavour. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xxxiv, The first comparisons were drawn between us, always in my disfavour. 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. III. 208 That actions of doubtful bearing should be construed to their disfavour. |
† 5. Want of beauty; ill-favouredness, disfigurement. Obs. [Cf. disfavour v. 2, favour n. 9.]
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Disfavour..Disfigurement. Hence in Bailey. 1755 Johnson, Disfavour..3. Want of beauty. Dict. |
▪ II. disˈfavour, -or, v.
[f. dis- 6 + favour v.: cf. the n.; also It. disfavorire.]
1. trans. To regard or treat with the reverse of favour or good will; to discountenance; to treat with disapprobation.
| 1570 Buchanan Admonitioun Wks. (1892) 27 Y⊇ King having..persavit his unfaythfull dealing evir disfauourit him. 1583 T. Watson Centurie of Loue xxxvi. (Arb.) 72 The heau'ns them selues disfauour mine intent. 1669 Clarendon Ess. Tracts (1727) 97 Persons who are like to disfavour our pretences. a 1745 Swift (J.), Might not those of..nearer access to her majesty receive her own commands, and be countenanced or disfavoured according as they obey? 1881 Times 13 July 6/3 The railway company favours a town by giving preferential low rates, while the trade of another town is disfavoured by having higher rates. 1895 Edin. Rev. Jan. 130 He disfavoured controversy. |
† b. To dislike. Obs. or dial.
| 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 175 Who it is thought doth disfavour them as much as his Father doted on them. 1740 Dyche & Pardon, Disfavour, to dislike, to take a pique at, or bear a grudge to a person. |
† 2. To mar the countenance or appearance of; to disfigure; to render ill-favoured. Obs.
| 1535 Coverdale Ecclus. xiv. 6 There is no thinge worse, then whan one disfauoureth himself. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 168 It scoureth away freckles and such flecks as disfauor the face. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 159 Their whole visages so disfigured and disfavoured in a moment that their neerest friends..cannot know them. |
Hence disˈfavoured ppl. a.
| 1611 Cotgr., Desfavorisé, disfauoured, out of fauour with. 1865 Athenæum 23 Dec. 889/3 The unfavoured, or rather disfavoured, study of Sanscrit. |