complaisant

[ kuhm-pley-suhnt, -zuhnt, kom-pluh-zant ]

adjective

1. inclined or disposed to please; obliging; agreeable or gracious; compliant:

   the most complaisant child I've ever met.

complaisant

/ kəmˈpleɪzənt /

adjective

1. showing a desire to comply or oblige; polite

Derived Forms

• comˈplaisantly, adverb

Other Words From

• com·plaisant·ly adverb
• noncom·plaisant adjective
• noncom·plaisant·ly adverb
• uncom·plaisant adjective
• uncom·plaisant·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of complaisant¹

1640–50; < French (present participle of complaire ) < Latin complacent- (stem of complacēns, present participle of complacēre; complacent )

Word History and Origins

Origin of complaisant¹

C17: from French complaire, from Latin complacēre to please greatly; compare complacent

Example Sentences

Private institutional investors such as BlackRock and Vanguard tend to be more complaisant about CEO pay — except for European funds.

From Los Angeles Times

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

“I have always considered it important for musicologists to put their expertise at the service of ‘average consumers’ and alert them to the possibility that they are being hoodwinked, not only by commercial interests but by complaisant academics, biased critics, and pretentious performers,” he wrote in 1994.

From New York Times

The next morning, however, made an alteration; for in a quarter of an hour’s tête-à-tête with Mrs. Bennet before breakfast, a conversation beginning with his parsonage-house, and leading naturally to the avowal of his hopes, that a mistress might be found for it at Longbourn, produced from her, amid very complaisant smiles and general encouragement, a caution against the very Jane he had fixed on.

From Literature

Paul Hudson, a founder of Flyersrights.org and a longtime member of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Rulemaking Advisory Committee, said he had been critical of regulators under President Obama but feels that the regulators under President Trump have been even more complaisant toward enforcing consumer rights regulations.

From Los Angeles Times