Emily Dickinson Lexicon

COM-PLA'CENCE, or COM-PLA'CEN-CY, n. [L. complacens, complaceo; con and placeo, to please; Fr. complaire, complaisant; It. compiacere, compiacente; Sp. complacer.]

1. Pleasure; satisfaction; gratification. It is more than approbation, and less than delight or joy. Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency, if they discover none of the like in themselves. – Addison.
2. The cause of pleasure or joy. – Milton.
3. Complaisance; civility; softness of manners; deportment and address that afford pleasure. Complacency, and truth, and manly sweetness, / Dwell ever on his tongue, and smooth his thoughts. – Addison. In the latter sense, complaisance, from the French, is now used. [See Complaisance.]

COM-PLA'CENT, a.

Civil; complaisant. They look up with a sort of complacent awe to kings. – Burke.

COM-PLA-CEN'TIAL, a.

Marked by complacence; accommodating. – Ch. Relig. Appeal.

COM-PLA-CEN'TIAL-LY, adv.

In an accommodating manner.

COM-PLA'CENT-LY, adv.

Softly; in a complacent manner.

COM-PLAIN', v.i. [Fr. complaindre; con or com and plaindre, plaint, to lament, to bewail; Sp. planir; It. compiagnere, or compiangere; from the L. plango, to strike, to lament. If n is not radical, the original word was plago, coinciding with plaga, Gr. πληγη. But this is doubtful. The primary sense is to drive, whence to strike and to lament, that is, to strike the hands or breasts, as in extreme grief, or to drive forth the voice, as in appello.]

1. To utter expressions of grief; to lament. I will complain in the bitterness of my spirit. – Job vii. I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed. – Ps. lxxvii.
2. To utter expressions of censure or resentment; to a murmur; to find fault. And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord. – Numb. xi.
3. To utter expressions of uneasiness, or pain. He complains of thirst. He complains of a head-ache.
4. To charge; to accuse of an offense; to present an accusation against a person to a proper officer. To A B, one of the justices of the peace for the county of S, complains C D. This verb is regularly followed by of, before the cause of grief or censure; as, to complain of thirst, of ignorance, of vice, of an offender.
5. To represent injuries, particularly in a writ of Audita Querela.

COM-PLAIN', v.t.

To lament; to bewail. They might the grievance inwardly complain. – Dan. This use of complain is uncommon, and hardly legitimate. The phrase is properly elliptical.

COM-PLAIN'A-BLE, a.

That may be complained of. [Not in use.] Feltham.

COM-PLAIN'ANT, n. [Fr. complaignant.]

1. A prosecutor; one who prosecutes by complaint, or commences a legal process against an offender for the recovery of a right or penalty. He shall forfeit one moiety to the use of the town; and the other moiety to the use of the complainant. – Stat. of Massachusetts.
2. The plaintif in a writ of Audita Querela. – Ibm.

COM-PLAIN'ER, n.

One who complains, or expresses grief; one who laments; one who finds fault; a murmurer. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts. Jude 16.

COM-PLAIN'FUL, a.

Full of complaint. [Not used.]

COM-PLAIN'ING, n.

The expression of regret, sorrow, or injury.

COM-PLAIN'ING, ppr.

Expressing grief, sorrow, or censure; finding fault; murmuring; lamenting; accusing of an offense.

COM-PLAINT', n. [Fr. complainte; It. compianto.]

1. Expression of grief, regret, pain, censure, or resentment; lamentation; murmuring; a finding fault. Even to-day is my complaint bitter. Job xxiii. I mourn in my complaint and make a noise. Ps. lv. The Jews laid many and grievous complaints against Paul. Acts xxv. I find no cause of complaint. – Hooker.
2. The cause or subject of complaint, or murmuring. The poverty of the clergy hath been the complaint of all who wish well to the church. – Swift.
3. The cause of complaint, or of pain and uneasiness in the body; a malady; a disease; usually applied to disorders not violent; as, a complaint in the bowels or breast.
4. Accusation; a charge against an offender, made by a private person or informer, to a justice of the peace or other proper officer, alledging that the offender has violated the law, and claiming the penalty due to the prosecutor. It differs from an information, which is the prosecution of an offender by the Attorney or Solicitor General; and from a presentment and indictment, which are the accusation of a Grand Jury.
5. Representation of injuries, in a general sense; and appropriately, in a writ of Audita Querela.

COM'PLAI-SANCE, n. [com'plazance; Fr. complaisance, from complaisant, the participle of complaire; con or com and plaire, to please, whence plaisant, pleasing, plaisir, pleasure, L. placeo, placere, the infinitive changed into plaire; compiacenza, from compiacere, piacere; Sp. complacencia, complacer. This is the same word as complacence; the latter we have from the Latin orthography. This word affords an example of a change of a palatal letter in the Latin, into a sibilant in French, c into s.]

1. A pleasing deportment; courtesy; that manner of address and behavior in social intercourse which gives pleasure; civility; obliging condescension; kind and affable reception and treatment of guests; exterior acts of civility; as, the gentleman received us with complaisance.
2. Condescension; obliging compliance with the wishes or humors of others. In complaisance poor Cupid mourned. – Prior.
3. Desire of pleasing; disposition to oblige; the principle for the act. Your complaisance will not permit your guests to be incommoded. – Anon.

COM'PLAI-SANT, a. [com'plazant.]

1. Pleasing in manners; courteous; obliging; desirous to please; as, a complaisant gentleman.
2. Civil; courteous; polite; as, complaisant deportment or treatment.

COM'PLAI-SANT-LY, adv. [com'plazantly.]

In a pleasing manner; with civility; with an obliging, affable address or deportment. – Pope.

COM'PLAI-SANT-NESS, n.

Civility; complaisance. [Little used.]

COM'PLA-NATE, or COM-PLANE', v.t. [L. complano; con and planus, plain. See Plane and Plain.]

To make level; to reduce to an even surface. – Derham.

COM'PLA-NA-TED, or COM-PLA'NED, pp.

Planed to an even surface.

COM'PLA-NA-TING, or COM-PLA'NING, ppr.

Reducing to a level surface.

COM'PLE-MENT, n. [L. complementum, from compleo, to fill; con and pleo, to fill. Literally, a filling.]

1. Fullness; completion; whence, perfection. They, as they feasted, had their fill, / For a full complement of all their ill. – Hub. Tales.
2. Full quantity or number; the quantity or number limited; as, a company has its complement of men; a ship has its complement of stores.
3. That which is added, not as necessary, but as ornamental; something adventitious to the main thing; ceremony. [See Compliment.] Garnished and decked in modest complement. – Shak.
4. In geometry, what remains of the quadrant of a circle, or of ninety degrees, after any arch has been taken from it. Thus, if the arch taken is thirty degrees, its complement is sixty. – Bailey. Johnson.
5. In astronomy, the distance of a star from the zenith. – Johnson.
6. Arithmetical complement of a logarithm, is what the logarithm wants of 10,000,000. Chambers.
7. In fortification, the complement of the curtain is that part in the interior side which makes the demigorge.

COM-PLE-MENT'AL, a.

Filling; supplying a deficiency; completing.

COM-PLE-MENT'A-RY, n.

One skilled in compliments. [Not in use.] – B. Jonson.

COM-PLETE', a. [L. completus, from compleo; con and pleo, inusit., to fill; It. compiere. The Greek has πλαω, to approach, to fill, contracted from πελαω, the primary sense of which is, to thrust or drive; and if the Latin pleo is from the Greek, which is probable, then the original orthography was peleo, compeleo; in which case, πλαω, πελαω, pleo, is the same word as the English fill. The Greek πληθω is said to be a derivative. Literally, filled; full.]

1. Having no deficiency; perfect. And ye are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power. – Col. ii.
2. Finished; ended; concluded; as, the edifice is complete. This course of vanity almost complete. – Prior. In strict propriety, this word admits of no comparison; for that which is complete, can not be more or less so. But as the word, like many others, is used with some indefiniteness of signification, it is customary to qualify it with more, most, less and least. More complete, most complete, less complete, are common expressions.
3. In botany, a complete flower is one furnished with a calyx and corolla. – Vaillant. Or having all the parts of a flower. – Martyn.