litany of complaints
1
7.4
- noun
- /ˈlɪtəni əv kəmˈpleɪnts/
- Informal
:
litany de quejas
- Whenever anyone approached him that summer, he would cheerfully agree to listen to a litany of complaints, to inspect what someone called, under his breath, a "suspicious" mole.
- listen to a litany of complaints
Couple examples of this the prisoner throws up and and the officer goes into this litany of complaints.
- Couple examples of this the prisoner throws up and and the officer goes into this litany of complaints.
Examples
-
Do you screen your calls or say you're busy in order to dodge their litany of complaints?
Blog text (30) -
Local and foreign chambers of business were primarily responsible for this shift in thinking with their continual litany of complaints about the existing policy.
Academic text (2002) -
He had a litany of complaints, but shut up long enough to stuff his face with Tender Vittles.
Fiction book (1992) -
If the speech ends only with an exclamation point to the litany of complaints, then we need to vow not to waste our time listening to that speaker again.
Academic text (2003) -
During the meeting, she presented a litany of complaints about the new policies that frustrated her team.
-
The workers submitted a litany of complaints regarding the unsafe working conditions at the factory.
-
Every time we talk, he shares a litany of complaints about the lack of support from management.
Synonyms
24
7.7
A long list of complaints or problems
A large number of complaints arriving at the same time
A sudden large number of complaints at the same time
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase’s meaning is directly compositional: 'litany' denotes an extended, repetitive catalogue and 'complaints' are grievances, so together they yield 'a long, often repetitive list of grievances.' This noun + of + noun pattern is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would be able to infer the MWE’s meaning.
Etymology
Litany of complaints comes from an old church word litany, a long series of prayers said out loud. Imagine someone reading complaint after complaint like a prayer, and that's why the phrase means 'a long, often repeated list of complaints'.