complaisant
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- complaisantly adverb
- noncomplaisant adjective
- noncomplaisantly adverb
- uncomplaisant adjective
- uncomplaisantly adverb
Etymology
Origin of complaisant
1640–50; < French (present participle of complaire ) < Latin complacent- (stem of complacēns, present participle of complacēre; complacent )
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Private institutional investors such as BlackRock and Vanguard tend to be more complaisant about CEO pay — except for European funds.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 1, 2023
She opined that modern journalists, like herself, had helped to "normalise the absurd" and that going forward "whilst we do not have to be campaigners, nor should we be complaisant, complicit, onlookers."
From BBC • Aug. 24, 2022
The GPA ethos takes spirited children and pushes them to be hard working but complaisant.
From Seattle Times • May 13, 2016
It was the last straw for the normally complaisant Bernstein.
From The Guardian • Dec. 23, 2010
The following occurrence was comic:—You know in what repute the supple and complaisant Fessler, Bishop of St. Pölten, is held here, the first herald for retailing the new dogma to the world.
From Letters From Rome on the Council by D?llinger, Johann Joseph Ignaz von
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
