Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.