plaint
Americannoun
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a complaint.
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Law. a statement of grievance made to a court for the purpose of asking redress.
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a lament; lamentation.
noun
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archaic a complaint or lamentation
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law a statement in writing of grounds of complaint made to a court of law and asking for redress of the grievance
Etymology
Origin of plaint
1175–1225; Middle English < Middle French < Latin planctus a striking or beating (the breast) in grief, equivalent to plang ( ere ) to beat, strike, mourn for + -tus, suffix of v. action
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.
Produced by Pheelz, a Nigerian songwriter who adds a rap verse, “Ruin” deploys the shakers, deep log drums, soothing keyboard chords and open spaces of amapiano as Usher mixes accusation, plaint and humblebrag.
From New York Times
O’Connor’s, with its silence, turns the original plaint into a jolt.
From New York Times
“What seemed to be political fanaticism,” he writes there, “was only an excuse, a parable, a manifesto of fidelity, a coded plaint of love.”
From Los Angeles Times
Instead of breaking something open, and for all its self-conscious daring, “Beau Is Afraid” stays in a relatively safe lane as one more Portnoy-esque plaint about Mom’s inhumanity to man.
From Washington Post
Labrinth intones the title as a falsetto plaint above hollow, puffing organ chords that hark back to Brian Wilson; the beat is slow, sporadic, almost stumbling.
From New York Times
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.
