Definition of "complement" []

• Something that completes, makes up a whole, or brings to perfection. (noun)
• The quantity or number needed to make up a whole: shelves with a full complement of books. (noun)
• Either of two parts that complete the whole or mutually complete each other. (noun)
• An angle related to another so that the sum of their measures is 90°. (noun)
• Grammar A word or words used to complete a predicate construction, especially the object or indirect object of a verb; for example, the phrase to eat ice cream in We like to eat ice cream. (noun)

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.

• "As the objective complement generally denotes what the receiver of the act is made to be, in fact or in thought, it is sometimes called the _factitive complement_ or the _factitive object_ (Lat. _facere_, to make)."
• "The complement is to separate a fish open as good as nail it to a board, which is afterwards placed in a immeasurable open grate to cook, as good as sizzle, as good as smell customarily smashing good."
• "And if we’re testing “innate” intelligence, we’re obviously testing the wrong thing (s), because the freakin’ genetic complement is (essentially) unchanged throughout life. clarice: (2) You suggest we have enough examples of bad nurturing and we should do something about that."