complaisant
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of complaisant
1640–50; < French (present participle of complaire ) < Latin complacent- (stem of complacēns, present participle of complacēre; see complacent)
Explanation
If only the world were populated entirely with complaisant people! Complaisant means willing to do something to please others, and complaisant people or animals are wonderful to be around. Don't confuse complaisant with its near-homonym complacent. Both derive from the Latin complacere "to please," but while complaisant means willing to do something to please another, complacent means smug and self-satisfied, something that you want to avoid when you're on the winning team.
Vocabulary lists containing complaisant
"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
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Society and Solitude
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"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," Vocabulary from the short story
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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
These cases are quite different from the phoney stories planted by studio flacks from time immemorial, dependent on co-operative artists and a complaisant press.
From The Guardian • Nov. 7, 2016
The GPA ethos takes spirited children and pushes them to be hard working but complaisant.
From Seattle Times • May 13, 2016
The Secretary, who has always been complaisant, was more so than ever today.
From The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution (Volume VI) by Various
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.
