ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsCcomplaisant
ISEE/SSAThard
complaisant
Meaning: agreeably willing to please others, sometimes too readily
complaisant in a sentence
How complaisant is used in real sentences:
The complaisant host changed the menu for every guest.
Her complaisant reply kept the meeting pleasant, though she did not press her own concerns.
“A complaisant junior analyst was ready to approve the replacement batch merely to satisfy the schedule.”
— from the passage The Returning Hinge
“Mara confessed that, as a young clerk, she had been too complaisant when the prosecutor asked her to bury the analyst's draft in a mislabeled evidence box.”
— from the passage The Weight of Fifteen Years
“Voss obtained copies from a complaisant clerk who had preserved both versions, never questioning why different senior officials requested conflicting documents.”
— from the passage The Varen Customs Crisis
Also read it in: The Empty Chair
Synonyms for complaisant
Other words for complaisant — obliging, accommodating and amenable — carry the same meaning.
- obliging
- accommodating
- amenable
Antonyms of complaisant
Words that mean the opposite of complaisant:
- stubborn
- defiant
- uncooperative
Where it comes from
From French complaire, meaning 'to please.'
Memory hook
COMPLAISANT looks like 'com-pleasant': pleasant and eager to please.
Practice complaisant in the app