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Definition of "complacent" []

  • Contented to a fault; self-satisfied and unconcerned: He had become complacent after years of success. (adjective)
  • Eager to please; complaisant. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "complacent" in a sentence
  • "The next night, in the cabin up-river, after Miriam had left them alone to what she termed their complacent silence, Garry Devereau and Steve sat a long while before the former raised a face alight with his rare mirth."
  • "As long as we remain complacent in the face of injustice ... it will continue with impunity."
  • "The great mass of Christian people remain complacent, unaware both that the position of the Church in contemporary society is humiliating and that the cause of that humiliation is their own timid compromise with a secularism inconsistent with tenets the holding and advancement of which are the Church's chief reason for being …"