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Definition of "complaisant" [com•plai•sant]

  • Exhibiting a desire or willingness to please; cheerfully obliging. (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 "complaisant" in a sentence
  • "They cannot rightly be called complaisant, since they do not know, but they are good creatures who cannot see farther than their nose."
  • "If "complaisant" was not the very last word that came to mind at the thought of Jamie Fraser, it was certainly well down toward the bottom of the list."
  • "If he do this with the mere intention of pleasing he is said to be "complaisant," according to the Philosopher (Ethic. iv, 6): whereas if he do it with the intention of making some gain out of it, he is called a "flatterer" or "adulator.""