stroke ego

stroke (one's) ego

To appeal to one's pride or vanity. You're not going to get what you want by stroking the boss's ego. If anything, that's a good way to get in trouble with her! I couldn't resist stroking my ego a bit by reading some of the good reviews for my latest film.
See also: ego, stroke
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

stroke someone's ego

Fig. to flatter and praise someone. If you have trouble with him, just take a few minutes and stroke his ego. You'll soon have him eating out of your hand.
See also: ego, stroke
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • get on (one's) good side
  • get on someone's good side
  • at (one's) discretion
  • at somebody's discretion
  • push (one's) luck
  • push luck
  • push your luck
  • in bad
  • in bad with (one)
  • come to (one's) ears
References in periodicals archive
You need to stroke egos, you need to boot backsides, you need to cuddle some of them, everyone is different and if you can't man-manage you are going to fail as a manager.
Both understood the "feel moments" in Congress, as Dodd called them--knowing when to stroke egos or knock heads, when to hold and when to fold in negotiations to keep legislation alive.
Teel, an ordained minister with PhD's in Divinity and Biblical Studies, contends that, "Man has developed religion for various purposes; whether it was to exert control, instill morality, or stroke egos. Organized, structured religions do everything but remove god from the equation.
Fight to move the most interesting, important stuff up in the story, and push all that background down where it belongs-or, if you can, out of the story altogether, if the only reason you're running it is to stroke egos.
"On the other hand, one of my clients had such humility that he was able to build bridges, admit mistakes, stroke egos, and, in so doing, create lines of communication in an organization with years and years of nasty history of bickering and blaming," our colleague adds.
It is also a way to stroke egos, primarily those of the the collectors, who want to be able to say, when they put their works up for sale at Sotheby's, that they were included in this or that important show.