COMPLAIN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does complain mean? 

• COMPLAIN (verb)
  The verb COMPLAIN has 2 senses:

1. express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness

2. make a formal accusation; bring a formal charge

  Familiarity information: COMPLAIN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMPLAIN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they complain    ... he / she / it complains   
Past simple: complained   
Past participle: complained   
-ing form: complaining   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

complain; kick; kvetch; plain; quetch; sound off

Context example:

She has a lot to kick about

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "complain"):

hen-peck; nag; peck (bother persistently with trivial complaints)

backbite; bitch (say mean things)

grizzle; whine; yammer; yawp (complain whiningly)

croak; gnarl; grumble; murmur; mutter (make complaining remarks or noises under one's breath)

grouch; grumble; scold (show one's unhappiness or critical attitude)

protest (utter words of protest)

repine (express discontent)

beef; bellyache; bitch; crab; gripe; grouse; holler; squawk (complain)

inveigh; rail (complain bitterly)

bemoan; bewail; deplore; lament (regret strongly)

report (complain about; make a charge against)

bleat (talk whiningly)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sentence example:

They complain that there was a traffic accident

Antonym:

cheer (become cheerful)

Derivation:

complainer (a person given to excessive complaints and crying and whining)

complaint (an expression of grievance or resentment)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a formal accusation; bring a formal charge

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

The plaintiff's lawyer complained that he defendant had physically abused his client

Hypernyms (to "complain" is one way to...):

charge (make an accusatory claim)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

complainant (a person who brings an action in a court of law)

complaint ((criminal law) a pleading describing some wrong or offense)

complaint ((civil law) the first pleading of the plaintiff setting out the facts on which the claim for relief is based)

 Context examples 

Mrs. Hurst and her sister scarcely opened their mouths, except to complain of fatigue, and were evidently impatient to have the house to themselves.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

At all times I lounged about the house and neighbourhood quite disregarded, except that they were jealous of my making any friends: thinking, perhaps, that if I did, I might complain to someone.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But in spite of these unromantic facts, I have nothing to complain of, and never was so jolly in my life.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He was forever ill-treating her, and she too proud to complain.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of all the signs, you were tested the most, yet you complained the least.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

We made easy journeys, of not above seven or eight score miles a-day; for Glumdalclitch, on purpose to spare me, complained she was tired with the trotting of the horse.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"Your sprinkling is all wrong," he complained next.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

When the sled was lashed and the complaining dogs harnessed, he returned into the cabin for his mittens.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The bride, who had fortunately entered the house before this unpleasant interruption, had sat down to breakfast with the rest, when she complained of a sudden indisposition and retired to her room.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The maids complained of his drunken habits and his vile language.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)