COMPLACENCY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Complacency

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/kəmplˈeɪsənsi/ Listen

noun

Complacency, Complacence n.

Calm contentment; satisfaction; gratification. "The inward complacence we find in acting reasonably and virtuously." "Others proclaim the infirmities of a great man with satisfaction and complacency, if they discover none of the like in themselves."

The cause of pleasure or joy. "O thou, my sole complacence."

The manifestation of contentment or satisfaction; good nature; kindness; civility; affability. "Complacency, and truth, and manly sweetness, Dwell ever on his tongue, and smooth his thoughts." "With mean complacence ne'er betray your trust."

See images of 'Complacency'

Etymology of 'Complacency'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Complacency" Quotes from Famous Books

... in minor points; and the only chance which now remained of preserving the established order of Christendom, was to terrify the Vatican court into submission by the firmness of his attitude. For the present complications, the court of Rome, not he, was responsible. The pope, with a culpable complacency for the emperor, had shrunk from discharging a duty which his office imposed upon him; and the result had been that the duty was discharged by another. Henry could not blame himself for the consequences of Clement's delinquency. He rather ...

— History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II. • James Anthony Froude

... phenomenon that those who have no visible basis for pride are likely to be the most consumed with it. The pride of Diogenes was visible through the holes in his carpet; the pride of liberalism is visible in its irritability whenever the subject of sin, especially original sin, is mentioned. Yet the very complacency of liberalism about the perfection of man, is but another evidence (if we needed another) of his inherent sinfulness, his weakness in the face of moral ideals. If we confess our sins we are on the way to forgiveness; but if we say that we have no sin ...

— Our Lady Saint Mary • J. G. H. Barry

... kissed her hand he bent his knee to the ground in reverence. Then he rose to go, pressing a little packet into her palm. Their eyes met, and the man saw, in that brief instant, deep in the azure depths of the girl's that which tumbled the structure of his new-found complacency about ...

— The Outlaw of Torn • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... the struggle was lifelong, but it must be added that it was always unequal. The knowledge that in his secret heart he desired this quality, the imperfection of imperfections, only served to make Dale's attack on the complacency of his contemporaries more bitter. He ridiculed their achievements, their ambitions, and their love with a fury that awakened in them a mild curiosity, but by no means affected their comfort. Moreover, the very vehemence with which he demanded ...

— The Ghost Ship • Richard Middleton

... not know if the reader will understand how a passionate lover, an immense admiration and desire, can be shot with a gleam of positive hatred. Such a gleam there was in me at the serene self-complacency of that "NOW!" It vanished almost before I felt it. I found no warning in it of the ...

— Tono Bungay • H. G. Wells

More quotes...