compliment
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Pronunciation
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈkɑmpləmənt/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒmplɪmənt/
Audio (US): (file) - Homophone: complement
Etymology 1
Borrowed from French compliment, itself a borrowing of Italian complimento, which in turn is a borrowing from Spanish cumplimiento, from cumplir (“to comply, complete, do what is proper”) + -miento or Latin complēmentum. Doublet of complement. Displaced Old English ġeswǣsnes.
Noun
compliment (plural compliments)
- An expression of praise, congratulation, or respect.
- pay someone a compliment
- c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
- […] I met him
With customary compliment; when he,
Wafting his eyes to the contrary and falling
A lip of much contempt, speeds from me and
So leaves me to consider what is breeding
That changeth thus his manners.
- 1671, John Milton, “The Fourth Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 65:
- [...] what honour that,
but tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
So many hollow compliments and lies,
Outlandish flatteries?
- 1782, William Cowper, “Table Talk”, in Poems, London: J. Johnson, page 37:
- Virtue indeed meets many a rhiming friend,
And many a compliment politely penn’d,
- (uncountable) Complimentary language; courtesy, flattery.
- 1743, Robert Drury, The Pleasant, and Surprizing Adventures of Mr. Robert Drury, during his Fifteen Years Captivity on the Island of Madagascar, London, page 25:
- He told the Captain, He was heartily sorry for his Misfortunes; tho’ in my Opinion that was nothing but a Compliment: For, as I found afterwards, he was more brutish, and dishonest, than most of the other Kings on the Island […]
- 1871, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter III, in Middlemarch […], volume I, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book I, page 48:
- This accomplished man condescended to think of a young girl, and take the pains to talk to her, not with absurd compliment, but with an appeal to her understanding, and sometimes with instructive correction.
- Misspelling of complement.
Synonyms
- See Thesaurus:praise
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
expression of praise, congratulation or respect
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courtesy, flattery
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Etymology 2
Borrowed from French complimenter, from compliment + -er (verb-forming suffix).[1]
Verb
compliment (third-person singular simple present compliments, present participle complimenting, simple past and past participle complimented)
- (transitive, intransitive) To pay a compliment (to someone); to express a favourable opinion (of someone).
- Antonym: insult
- 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World. A Poem in Three Books.”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC, book II (Pleasure), page 457:
- […] She transferr'd the curs'd Advice, / That Monarchs ſhould their inward Soul diſguise, / Diſſemble, and command; be falſe, and wiſe; / By ignominous Arts for ſervile Ends / Should compliment their Foes, and ſhun their Friends.
- Misspelling of complement.
Derived terms
Translations
to pay a compliment; to express a favorable opinion
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See also
References
- “compliment, v.”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
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