Meaning

3 senses

  1. Compliant.

  2. Willing to do what pleases others; obliging; agreeable.

    gefällig, entgegenkommend, wohlwollend

  3. (archaic)Polite; showing respect.

More definitions
  • showing a cheerful willingness to do favors for others

Examples

4 sentences

  1. Tom was a complaisant child.

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  2. Tom is a complaisant husband.

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  3. Susan was so complaisant that she rarely did anything she would have preferred to do.

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  4. Tom's complaisant wife Mary is a stark contrast to his fiercely independent sister Alice.

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Translations

4 languages
Deutsch
By meaning 1
willing to do what pleases others:

Origin

From French complaisant (“willing to please”), from complaire, from Latin complacēre (“ple

From French complaisant (“willing to please”), from complaire, from Latin complacēre (“please well”), from com- (“with”) + placeō (“please”).

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

more complaisant, most complaisant
Comparativemore complaisant Lesson
Superlativemost complaisant Lesson

regular

Synonyms

36 synonyms
compliantC1docileC1indulgentB2passiveB1civilB1correctA1politeA2reasonableB1amenabletractablebiddablecontrollablegovernablemanageable
Close in meaning
  • showing a cheerful willingness to do favors for others:obliging

Word family

4 related words
Relatedcomplaisance
Derivedcomplaisantlycomplaisantnessuncomplaisant

Lessons for this word

2 lessons

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
complacentlycomplainA2complainercomplaintA2complementB1complementaryC1
complaisant — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto