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complaisance|ˈkɒmpleɪˌzɑːns, -æ-, ˌkɒmpleɪˈzɑːns, -æ-, -ˈpleɪzəns|
Also 7 compleasance, complesence.
[17th c. a. F. complaisance (14th c. in Littré) care or desire to please = Pr., Sp. complacencia, It. compiacenza, med.L. complacentia: see complacence.]
The action or habit of making oneself agreeable; desire and care to please; compliance with, or deference to, the wishes of others; obligingness, courtesy, politeness.
1651Hobbes Leviath. i. xv. 76 Compleasance; that is to say, That every man strive to accommodate himselfe to the rest. 1678Butler Hud. iii. i. 738 The Bride, That with her Wedding-cloaths undresses Her Complaisance and Gentilesses. 1689Shadwell Bury F. ii. 152 For complaisance, and breeding sake I'll do it. 1709Prior The Dove 9 Fair Venus wept the sad disaster..In complaisance poor Cupid mourn'd. 1768Sterne Sent. Journ., The Pulse, If you will have the complaisance to step in. 1798Jane Austen Northang. Abb. iv, A lady who was sitting by her..addressed her with great complaisance. 1839James Louis XIV, I. 215 She was never treated afterwards with any degree of complaisance.
†b. in complaisance to: in deference to; as an act of politeness towards. Obs.
a1688Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Confer. Wks. (1775) 182 Most of the inhabitants, in complaisance..to their landlord are Roman Catholicks. 1741Monro Anat. (ed. 3) 124 In Complaisance to prevailing Custom, I shall follow the common Terms.
c. (with pl.) An act of complaisance.
a1762Lady M. W. Montague Lett. lxxvi. 125, I have carried my complaisances to you farther than I ought. 1841Emerson Method Nat. Wks. 1875 II. 233 How..the complaisances we use, shame us now! |