complain
[kuh m-pleyn]
- to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault: He complained constantly about the noise in the corridor.
- to tell of one's pains, ailments, etc.: to complain of a backache.
- to make a formal accusation: If you think you've been swindled, complain to the police.
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Origin of complain
Synonym study
1. Complain, grumble, growl, whine are terms for expressing dissatisfaction or discomfort. To complain is to protest against or lament a wrong: to complain about high prices. To grumble is to utter ill-natured complaints half to oneself: to grumble about the service. Growl may express more anger than grumble : to growl in reply to a question. To whine is to complain in a meanspirited way, using a nasal tone: to whine like a coward, like a spoiled child.
Antonyms
1. rejoice.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for complain
Contemporary Examples
And it might be what Islamists complain about while sitting in their caves.
I could complain about how, two out of eight episodes in, Agent Carter is in no hurry to introduce its real villain.
When they complain that there is no future for them here,” she confides after a long pause, “I worry they are right.
“His wife went for the visit and suddenly started to complain about the cuts,” Guadalupe told The Daily Beast.
Those that dared to complain were punished with bad shifts, demoted, or even fired.
Historical Examples
Should it be ever so unhappily, will it be prudence to complain or appeal?
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
They complain there are so few unobjectionable tracts to give them.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
His subordinate officers may complain that they have had no fighting.
The Story of the Malakand Field ForceSir Winston S. Churchill
At sundown of the second day he began to complain of the irksomeness of his bonds.
The Leopard WomanStewart Edward White
"That is the very thing of which I complain," said his lordship.
Tales And Novels, Volume 4 (of 10)Maria Edgeworth
complain
- to express resentment, displeasure, etc, esp habitually; grumble
- (foll by of) to state the presence of pain, illness, etc, esp in the hope of sympathyshe complained of a headache
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Word Origin
C14: from Old French complaindre, from Vulgar Latin complangere (unattested), from Latin com- (intensive) + plangere to bewail
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for complain
v.
late 14c., "find fault, lament," from stem of Old French complaindre "to lament" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *complangere, originally "to beat the breast," from Latin com-, intensive prefix (see com-), + plangere "to strike, beat the breast" (see plague (n.)). Older sense of "lament" died out 17c. Related: Complained; complaining.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with complain
complain
see can't complain.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.