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Comply vs Complicity - What's the difference?

comply | complicity |

As a verb comply

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

As a noun complicity is

(senseid)the state of being complicit; involvement as a partner or accomplice, especially in a crime or other wrongdoing.

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".

    Antonyms

    * violate

    Anagrams

    *

    complicity

    Noun

    (complicities)
  • (senseid)The state of being complicit; involvement as a partner or accomplice, especially in a crime or other wrongdoing.
  • * 1854 , , Hard Times , ch. 32:
  • He drew up a placard, offering Twenty Pounds reward for the apprehension of Stephen Blackpool, suspected of complicity in the robbery of Coketown Bank.
  • (archaic) Complexity.Oxford English Dictionary , 2nd ed., 1989.
  • * 1861 , Dr. Marx, "Musical Education and Instruction," The Musical Times , vol. 10, no. 220, p. 53:
  • How easy is it, on the other hand, to an enlightened teacher, particularly in the beginning, to elucidate the various forms of rhythm by methodical arrangement in respect of simplicity and increasing complicity or mixture!

    Synonyms

    * collusion, complicitousness, connivance

    Derived terms

    * complicitous

    References