| 释义 |
Definition of complacent in English: complacentadjective kəmˈpleɪs(ə)ntkəmˈpleɪs(ə)nt Showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements. you can't afford to be complacent about security Example sentencesExamples - However, he is not being complacent and has already started training hard.
- You only get one life, and if all you ever do with it is grow rich or complacent or comfortable or proud then you might as well not have lived at all.
- It is always wise to guard against adopting a complacent or smug attitude in life as one ages.
- I am very happy with the figures but I am aware we cannot become complacent.
- Trying different things keeps you alive and stops you being complacent.
- Most of the time he simply can't be bothered with it because he truly is lazy and complacent.
- Plus, decades of access to cheap oil has made us lazy and complacent about energy.
- Why are so few people scandalised by the timorous, seemingly complacent, way that the police behaved?
- However, residents have been warned they cannot afford to be complacent.
- The second was made up of complacent industries relying on politicians and bureaucrats to protect them.
- His duty is to arouse the sleeper, to shake the complacent pillars of the world.
- As the minister for justice he was obviously very complacent about the letter sent to him by the fingerprint expert.
- But the superintendent is not complacent and is keen to reassure people there is still work to be done.
- I had been complacent, even blasé, about someone who was really important to me.
- While this lead will shrink before polling day, you might think he'd be a tad complacent.
- In all of this praise, however, there is a severe danger that we might become complacent.
- Nothing is 100 percent safe and nobody should be complacent at a cash machine.
- The novelty of them has worn off and no team will again head north with the complacent attitude of an easy win and a night in Edinburgh.
- With 66 deaths on our roads every week, none of us can afford to be complacent.
- There are many actions that companies can take to give staff a sense of security without making them complacent.
Synonyms smug, self-satisfied, pleased with oneself, proud of oneself, self-approving, self-congratulatory, self-admiring, self-regarding gloating, triumphant, proud pleased, gratified, satisfied, content, contented careless, slack, lax, lazy informal like the cat that got the cream, I'm-all-right-Jack North American informal wisenheimer North American vulgar slang shit-eating
Usage Complacent and complaisant are two words which are similar in pronunciation and which both come from the Latin verb complacere ‘to please’, but in English they do not mean the same thing. Complacent is far commoner and means ‘smug and self-satisfied’. Complaisant, on the other hand, means ‘willing to please’, as in the local people proved complaisant and cordial Derivatives adverb kəmˈpleɪsəntli They have not done that by sitting back complacently. Example sentencesExamples - Are my followers and I supposed to sit there tomorrow and eat our turkey complacently while this persecution is occurring?
- Your editorial complacently endorsed the notion of matching the European Union average on health spending.
- The guys who run the companies now are sheep complacently chewing on their dollar bills.
- But later that day I went down to the pond to find the mother duck sitting complacently on the water while 12 little ducklings were shuttling about around her.
Origin Mid 17th century (in the sense 'pleasant'): from Latin complacent- 'pleasing', from the verb complacere. please from Middle English: A word that comes via Old French plaisir ‘to please’ from Latin placere, found also in implacable (Late Middle English). Phrases like yes, please were originally short for ‘may it please you’ or ‘let it please you’. Please on its own, as used today, was not known to Shakespeare, who used please you: ‘Will you hear the letter?—So please you, for I never heard it yet’ (As You Like It). The proverbs you can't please everyone and little things please little minds are both old and can be traced back to the late 15th and late 16th centuries. Something pleasant (Middle English) was originally something ‘pleasing’, the meaning of the word in its French source. If you were complacent (mid 17th century) you were originally willing to go along with what pleases others.
Definition of complacent in US English: complacentadjectivekəmˈpleɪs(ə)ntkəmˈplās(ə)nt Showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements. you can't afford to be complacent about security Example sentencesExamples - His duty is to arouse the sleeper, to shake the complacent pillars of the world.
- The second was made up of complacent industries relying on politicians and bureaucrats to protect them.
- It is always wise to guard against adopting a complacent or smug attitude in life as one ages.
- Most of the time he simply can't be bothered with it because he truly is lazy and complacent.
- But the superintendent is not complacent and is keen to reassure people there is still work to be done.
- However, he is not being complacent and has already started training hard.
- You only get one life, and if all you ever do with it is grow rich or complacent or comfortable or proud then you might as well not have lived at all.
- As the minister for justice he was obviously very complacent about the letter sent to him by the fingerprint expert.
- In all of this praise, however, there is a severe danger that we might become complacent.
- I am very happy with the figures but I am aware we cannot become complacent.
- Trying different things keeps you alive and stops you being complacent.
- There are many actions that companies can take to give staff a sense of security without making them complacent.
- The novelty of them has worn off and no team will again head north with the complacent attitude of an easy win and a night in Edinburgh.
- While this lead will shrink before polling day, you might think he'd be a tad complacent.
- Nothing is 100 percent safe and nobody should be complacent at a cash machine.
- However, residents have been warned they cannot afford to be complacent.
- Why are so few people scandalised by the timorous, seemingly complacent, way that the police behaved?
- I had been complacent, even blasé, about someone who was really important to me.
- With 66 deaths on our roads every week, none of us can afford to be complacent.
- Plus, decades of access to cheap oil has made us lazy and complacent about energy.
Synonyms smug, self-satisfied, pleased with oneself, proud of oneself, self-approving, self-congratulatory, self-admiring, self-regarding
Usage Complacent and complaisant are two words that are similar in pronunciation and that both come from the Latin verb complacere ‘to please,’ but in English do not mean the same thing. Complacent is the more common word and means ‘smug and self-satisfied’: after four consecutive championships, the team became complacent. Complaisant, on the other hand, means ‘willing to please’: the local people proved complaisant and cordial Origin Mid 17th century (in the sense ‘pleasant’): from Latin complacent- ‘pleasing’, from the verb complacere. |