Adjacent Words

Complicate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

COMPLICATE, v.t.
1. Literally, to interweave; to fold and twist together. Hence, to make complex; to involve; to entangle; to unite or connect mutually or intimately, as different things or parts; followed by with.
Our offense against God hath been complicated with injury to men.
So we say, a complicated disease; a complicated affair.
Commotion in the parts may complicate and dispose them after the manner requisite to make them stick.
2. To make intricate.
COMPLICATE, a.
1. Complex; composed of two or more parts united.
Through the particular actions of war are complicate in fact, yet they are separate and distinct in right.
2. In botany, folded together, as the valves of the glume or chaff in some grasses.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: make more complicated; "There was a new development that complicated the matter" [syn: complicate, perplex] [ant: simplify]
2: make more complex, intricate, or richer; "refine a design or pattern" [syn: complicate, refine, rarify, elaborate]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Latin complicatus, past participle of complicare to fold together, from com- + plicare to fold — more at ply Date: 1638 1. complex, intricate 2. conduplicate II. transitive verb (-cated; -cating) Date: 1672 1. to combine especially in an involved or inextricable manner 2. to make complex or difficult 3. involve; especially to cause to be more complex or severe <a virus disease complicated by bacterial infection>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. & intr. 1 (often foll. by with) make or become difficult, confused, or complex. 2 (as complicated adj.) complex; intricate. Derivatives: complicatedly adv. complicatedness n. Etymology: L complicare complicat- (as COM-, plicare fold)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Complicate Com"pli*cate, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Complicated; p. pr. & vb. n. Complicating.] To fold or twist together; to combine intricately; to make complex; to combine or associate so as to make intricate or difficult. Nor can his complicated sinews fail. --Young. Avarice and luxury very often become one complicated principle of action. --Addison. When the disease is complicated with other diseases. --Arbuthnot.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Complicate Com"pli*cate, a. [L. complicatus, p. p. of complicare to fold together. See Complex.] 1. Composed of two or more parts united; complex; complicated; involved. How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful is man! --Young. 2. (Bot.) Folded together, or upon itself, with the fold running lengthwise.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(complicates, complicating, complicated) To complicate something means to make it more difficult to understand or deal with. The day's events, he said, would only complicate the task of the peacekeeping forces... To complicate matters further, everybody's vitamin requirements vary... VERB: V n, V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. Involve, entangle, make complex, make intricate. II. a.; (also complicated) See complex, in both senses.

Moby Thesaurus

accelerate, add, adjoin, affix, agglutinate, aggravate, annex, append, attach, ball up, beef up, blow up, burden, concentrate, condense, confound, confuse, conjoin, consolidate, decorate, deepen, derange, disarrange, disorder, double, embrangle, encumber, enhance, entangle, exacerbate, exaggerate, foul up, garble, glue on, heat up, heighten, hitch on, hop up, hot up, implicate, infix, intensify, involve, jazz up, join with, jumble, key up, knot, louse up, magnify, make complex, make unintelligible, mess up, mix up, muck, muck up, muddle, mystify, obfuscate, obscure, ornament, paste on, perplex, plus, postfix, prefix, put with, ramify, ravel, redouble, reinforce, saddle with, scramble, screw up, shadow, sharpen, slap on, snafu, snarl, snarl up, soup up, step up, strengthen, subjoin, suffix, superadd, superpose, tack on, tag, tag on, tangle, triple, unite with, upset, whet