ingratiate

ingratiate \in-GREY-shee-eyt\, verb:

to establish (oneself) in the favor or good graces of others, especially by deliberate effort (usually followed by with): He ingratiated himself with all the guests.

The highest society then consisted, and I think always consist, of four sorts of people: rich people who are received at Court, people not wealthy but born and brought up in Court circles, rich people who ingratiatethemselves into the Court set, and people neither rich nor belonging to the Court but who ingratiatethemselves into the first and second sets.

-- Leo Tolstoy, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, Father Sergius, 1898

Cadurcis himself, good humered because he was happy, doubly exerted himself to ingratiate himself with Lady Annabel, and felt every day that he was advancing. Venetia always smiled upon him, and praised him delightfully for his delightful conduct.

-- Benjamin Disraeli, Venetia, 1871

Derived from the Latin in gratiam literally meaning "into favor," ingratiate entered English in the first half of the seventeenth century.