complaisant
1
8.3
- adjective
- /kəmˈpleɪsənt/
- Formal
:
complaciente
- His complaisant nature helped him win friends easily, as he always agreed to others' requests.
Examples
-
The boys were amazed at how the girls themselves, amid the rows of steel-framed cots, were entirely complaisant, giggling when first woken in the darkness and soon quite understanding that the guns meant this was serious and they best behave.
Fiction book (2001) -
She was always complaisant, making sure her friends felt comfortable and welcome at her home.
-
Highly self-critical, they do not allow themselves to become complaisant.
Academic text (2005) -
Zach had also been careful about letting him get exactly three wines in him: enough to make him complaisant, not enough to leave him ineffectual.
Fiction book (1991) -
To be in Montaigne's company, it seems, is to be in complaisant society: Agreement, as it were, circumscribes and defines Montaigne's social world.
Academic text (1991) -
The manager's complaisant attitude towards employees created a positive and cooperative workplace.
Synonyms
17
4.8
Willing to help others and change plans for them
7
9.3
Trying too hard to please someone in a way that seems false
3
4.1
Helpful and willing to do kind things for others
2
6.8
Ready to change or compromise to help others and keep peace
Antonyms
How Accommodating
Surface Forms
Etymology
Complaisant comes from the Latin parts com- ('with') and placere ('to please'), and came into English through French. It shares its root with the common word please, so a complaisant person is ready to be polite and to do what others want.