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Comply vs Complicit - What's the difference?

comply | complicit |

As a verb comply

is to yield assent; to accord; agree, or acquiesce; to adapt one's self; to consent or conform.

As an adjective complicit is

associated with or participating in an activity, especially one of a questionable nature.

comply

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To yield assent; to accord; agree, or acquiesce; to adapt one's self; to consent or conform.
  • * (John Milton) (1608-1674)
    • Yet this be sure, in nothing to comply , / Scandalous or forbidden in our law.
  • * (John Tillotson) (1630-1694)
    • They did servilely comply with the people in worshiping God by sensible images.
  • * 1664? , , (Hudibras)
    • He that complies against his will / Is of his own opinion still.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)
    • , chapter=6, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=But Sophia's mother was not the woman to brook defiance. After a few moments' vain remonstrance her husband complied .}}
  • *
  • (label) To be ceremoniously courteous; to make one's compliments.
  • * 1599 , , II. ii. 371:
    • Let me comply with you in this / garb, lest my extent to the players, which I tell you must / show fairly outwards, should more appear like entertainment / than yours.
  • (label) To fulfill; to accomplish.
    • (Chapman)
  • (label) To enfold; to embrace.
  • * (1591-1674)
    • Seemed to comply , / Cloudlike, the daintie deitie.

    Usage notes

    * Usually followed by "with".

    Related terms

    * compliant * compliance * compliable * no comply

    Antonyms

    * violate

    Anagrams

    *

    complicit

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Associated with or participating in an activity, especially one of a questionable nature.
  • * 1861 , Henry M. Wheeler, The Slaves' Champion , p. 203,
    • It [slavery] has set the seal of a complicit , guilty silence upon the most orthodox pulpits and the saintliest tongues,
  • * 1973 , , As If by Magic , Secker and Warburg, p. 177:
    • "I confess," and the Englishman turned with a near complicit grin to Hamo, "I have certain vulgar tastes myself."
  • * 2005 , Larry Dennsion, " Letters," Time , 7 March:
    • Khan's sale of nuclear secrets and a complicit Pakistani government have made the world a ticking time bomb.

    Synonyms

    * complicitous

    Derived terms

    * complicitly

    Related terms

    * complicity

    References

    * * Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.