Angle for
“Angle for” is an expression that means to try to get something, usually in a subtle or indirect way. When someone is “angling for” something, that person is behaving in a way to influence the outcome of a situation, usually to his or her own advantage.
It sometimes, but not always, sometimes implies a little bit of sneakiness or dishonesty. Sometimes, but not always.
Let’s start with an example of “angle for” that does not imply dishonesty. “Andreas is angling for a promotion at work.”
“He’s angling for a promotion at work” means that he’s doing things that he hopes will earn him a promotion. He’s doing the subtle, smaller, indirect things that—he hopes—will improve his chances of earning the promotion.
This is not wrong; this is not unethical—not necessarily . Someone angling for a promotion might work a little harder. He might take on a project that nobody else wants to do. She might do a little more internal networking, speak up more often in meetings, highlight her own accomplishments.
One way to try to get a promotion is to walk into the boss’s office and demand it. Another way is to angle for the promotion: to act in a more indirect way, do related things that make it more likely that you’ll get the promotion.
But here’s a case where “angling for” is a little sneaky and a little dishonest. Have you seen “The Bachelor”? It’s the most famous dating reality show in the U.S., maybe in the world. The idea is that there’s a bachelor—a single man—and he’s looking for love. So lots of women come on the show to win his affections. The one he likes (or loves!) the best gets a shot to marry him.
The show is so popular that many former contestants have gone on to have brand sponsorships, careers as influencers, and even their own reality shows. So now, as “The Bachelor” has matured, many people go on the show not to find love, not to win the competition, but to angle for their own post-show careers as influencers .
In other words , they don’t go on the show to win. They go on the show and they do things that will get attention. They do things that—they think—will make it likely for them to be popular on social media after the show is over. They’re angling for social media fame.
This feels a little sneaky. This feels a little cynical. Audiences want to see the competition. Most people know it’s not “reality,” but they still like the sense of competition. They don’t want to see people on the show that are just angling for their own sponsorship deals. That cheapens the experience for viewers.
A similar thing happens in politics. Here’s an example from the U.S. Lots of people run for president. Lots of people with no chance of winning—they still run! Why? Some think they have a chance—okay. But unfortunately, a lot of presidential candidates are just angling for cable news contracts after they lose. They’re not running to win. They’re angling to get a job in the media later. The candidacy is just a tactic.
Other candidates are angling for a job in the winner’s government. A candidate with no chance of winning still gets to stand on stage, still gets to spend donors’ money, still gets to raise his or her profile, still gets to go on TV. And that might be a nice boost to get a Cabinet position or at least an ambassadorship. So some candidates are just angling for a job later.
The most recent example of this was Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman who was supposedly running against Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. But curiously, Ramaswamy took every opportunity he could get to praise Trump—supposedly his opponent. What was going on? He was clearly angling for a job in a future Trump presidency.
So that’s angle for. A few quick examples before we wrap up. You can angle for a party invitation. That’s not dishonest! If you want to get invited to an exclusive party, you might network with people who are usually invited, you might flatter the host, you might do things that you think would get you invited. That’s “angling for” a party invitation.
Utah is a beautiful western state in the mountains. Salt Lake City, the capital, hosted the Olympics in 2002. The city is angling to host a future Olympics. The city is putting some documents together, forming committees, starting to do some work. They’re angling for the 2034 Olympics. That’s eleven years from now! But they’re starting to do things now that will make it likely that they’ll win later.
See you next time!
That’s it for us here at Plain English. This was lesson 641 of Plain English, so that means JR has uploaded all the great resources to PlainEnglish.com/641. We will be back with a new story on Monday. See you then.
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