complaint
Pluralcomplaints
- 1A grievance, problem, difficulty, or matter of concern about something.
His chief complaint was that the office kept changing the rules without warning.
The survey collected complaints ranging from noise levels to parking shortages.
Similargrievance, problem, concern, difficulty, objection
Note
Here the word names the matter rather than the act of voicing it: the grievance itself, which exists whether or not anyone speaks up. A common construction is have no complaints about, a mild approval that often comes with a qualification: I have no complaints about the quality of his work, but… Its synonym plaint shares the Latin ancestor traced at the act of complaining.
- 2The act of expressing that something is unsatisfactory, wrong, or a source of dissatisfaction.
Constant complaint from the staff eventually forced management to revise the schedule.
She accepted the extra workload without complaint, though it clearly frustrated her.
Similarprotest, objection, criticism, grumbling
Note
Behind the noun is a long French journey: Middle English compleynte, from Anglo-Norman compleint and Old French compleindre, and ultimately from Latin planctus, which also gave English plaint. As a countable noun it names single instances, usually labeled by who or what is behind them, as in customer complaints and noise complaints. People file complaints with whoever can act on them.
- 3A bodily disorder or disease, or a symptom that signals one.
Her recurring respiratory complaint flared up every time the weather turned cold.
The clinic sees patients with everything from a sprained ankle to a heart complaint.
Similarailment, condition, disorder, illness, problem
Note
A vaguer, more conversational word than disease, it often names an ailment by the part of the body it troubles rather than by diagnosis: a liver complaint, a nervous complaint, a heart complaint. It sits easily in casual speech (I've got this nasty complaint) and survives mainly in such fixed phrases. The link to the other senses is simple: an ailment is what the patient complains of.
- 4The first formal document a plaintiff files in a civil lawsuit, setting out the facts on which the claim is based.
The plaintiff's complaint alleged breach of contract and demanded substantial damages.
After reviewing the complaint, the judge scheduled an initial hearing.
Similarpetition
Note
A courtroom word with a precise job: filing it starts a civil suit. It states the grounds for the court's jurisdiction, the facts alleged and the relief sought, and it frames the issues the defendant must answer. A complaint is filed, and the defendant answers it. Keep it distinct from the criminal accusation, which one person brings against another before a magistrate.
- 5In criminal law, the preliminary charge or accusation one person makes against another before a court or magistrate.
The victim swore out a complaint before the local magistrate the next morning.
A valid complaint must name the accused and describe the alleged offense.
Similarcharge, accusation
Note
The word preliminary carries the weight here, because this complaint opens the criminal process rather than concluding it. One person lays the accusation before a magistrate or another competent officer, and a warrant or summons may then be issued on its basis. Being a private person's formal charge, it comes before any later stage of prosecution.
Practice
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Origin
It comes from Middle English compleynte, from Anglo-Norman compleint and Old French compleindre, going back ultimately to Latin planctus (the source of plaint).