Adjacent Words

Complaisant definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COMPLAISANT, a. complazant. Pleasing in manners; courteous; obliging; desirous to please; as a complaisant gentleman.
2. Civil; courteous; polite; as complaisant deportment or treatment.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: showing a cheerful willingness to do favors for others; "to close one's eyes like a complaisant husband whose wife has taken a lover"; "the obliging waiter was in no hurry for us to leave" [syn: complaisant, obliging]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: French, from Middle French, from present participle of complaire to gratify, acquiesce, from Latin complac?re Date: 1638 1. marked by an inclination to please or oblige 2. tending to consent to others' wishes Synonyms: see amiable • complaisantly adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 politely deferential. 2 willing to please; acquiescent. Usage: Often confused with complacent. Derivatives: complaisance n. Etymology: F f. complaire (stem complais-) acquiesce to please, f. L complacere: see COMPLACENCY

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Complaisant Com"plai*sant, a. [F. complaisant, p. pr. of complaire to acquiesce as a favor, fr. L. complacere. See Complacent.] Desirous to please; courteous; obliging; compliant; as, a complaisant gentleman. There are to whom my satire seems too bold: Scarce to wise Peter complaisant enough. --Pope. Syn: Obliging; courteous; affable; gracious; civil; polite; well-bred. See Obliging. -- Com"plai*sant`ly, adv. -- Com"plai*sant`ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you are complaisant, you are willing to accept what other people are doing without complaining. (OLD-FASHIONED) ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Obliging, compliant, yielding, affable, gracious, courteous, polite, civil, debonair, familiar, easy, well-bred, complacent.

Moby Thesaurus

abject, accepting, accommodating, accommodative, acquiescent, adaptable, adaptive, adjustable, affable, agreeable, amiable, amicable, assenting, attentive, benevolent, benign, benignant, blissful, cheerful, civil, compatible, compliable, compliant, complying, conformable, congenial, consenting, considerate, cordial, courteous, decent, deferential, delicate, desirable, dulcet, easy, en rapport, enjoyable, fair, fair and pleasant, felicific, felicitous, fine, flexible, generous, genial, gentle, good, good-humored, good-natured, good-tempered, goodly, graceful, gracious, grateful, gratifying, harmonious, heart-warming, heedful, helpful, honeyed, indulgent, kind, kindly, lenient, likable, malleable, mellifluous, mellow, mellowy, mild, mindful, mindful of others, mollified, nice, nondissenting, nonresistant, nonresisting, nonresistive, nonrigid, obedient, obliging, other-directed, overindulgent, overpermissive, passive, permissive, plastic, pleasant, pleasing, pleasurable, pleasure-giving, pleasureful, pliant, polite, regardful, resigned, respectful, rewarding, satisfying, servile, soft, soft as putty, softened, solicitous, submissive, subservient, supine, sweet, tactful, tender, thoughtful, tolerant, tractable, unassertive, uncomplaining, unresistant, unresisting, urbane, welcome, whisper-soft