Compliment

/ˈkɑmpləmənt/ · noun

Meaning

An expression of praise, congratulation, or respect..

Definitions by Sense

1. An expression of praise, congratulation, or respect.
2. (uncountable) Complimentary language; courtesy, flattery.
3. Misspelling of complement.
4. (ambitransitive) To pay a compliment (to someone); to express a favourable opinion (of someone).

Example Sentences

pay someone a compliment

[…] 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.

[...] what honour that, but tedious waste of time, to sit and hear So many hollow compliments and lies, Outlandish flatteries?

Virtue indeed meets many a rhiming friend, And many a compliment politely penn’d,

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 […]

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.

[…] 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.

Synonyms for compliment

Antonyms for compliment

Related Words

Word Forms

• compliments
• complimenting
• complimented

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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