Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday February 26, 2003
complaisant \kuhm-PLAY-suhnt; -zuhnt\ , adjective:
Exhibiting a desire to please; obliging; compliant.
They evict the irascible artist and install a complaisant tenant.
-- Kathleen Parker, "Reporting suffers with smoothing of rough edges", Los Angeles Business Journal, June 10, 2002
But the relationship between the two countries, which was based on cold geopolitical realities, had no chance of transforming Beijing into a complaisant ally.
-- Jacob Heilbrunn, "The next cold war", New Republic, November 20, 1995
Tory minions spent days scouring Westminster for a complaisant hack who would agree to take boring Lord Coe along as a guest.
-- Paul routledge, "Strategy of British Labour Party", New Statesman, January 29, 2001
I equally dreaded displeasing them; but was more complaisant to one.
-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Confessions
Complaisant comes from the present participle of Old French complaire, "to acquiesce as a favor," from Latin complacere, from com-, intensive prefix + placere, "to please."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for complaisant
