- ə nt adjective
Etymology: Latin complacent-, complacens very pleasing, present participle of complacēre to please greatly, from com- + placēre to please — more at please
1.
a. : marked by sometimes unwarranted, uncritical, and irritating satisfaction and pleasure at one's own personality, accomplishments, or situation
complacent when they should have been self-critical — Allan Nevins & H.S.Commager
the complacent ones, to those who love themselves much but not too wisely — M.R.Cohen
b. : marked by or as if by unruffled or blasé satisfaction about the security of one's position or by careless acceptance of events around one : disinclined to act, to change, or to guard
the complacent case of obesity — Arnold Bennett
in that complacent old world … youth did not easily feel the impact of national problems — John Buchan
2.
a. : feeling or showing complaisance or desire to please
the University of Colorado courteously released me from my contract, but the Garrett Biblical Institute was less complacent — R.M.Lovett
b. : marked by smooth even contented ease without notable activity, tension, or stress
townfolk made a complacent living by trading with countryfolk — American Guide Series: Texas
3. of a tree or a forest : marked by evenness and regularity in the growth of annual rings regardless of different conditions in different years — opposed to sensitive
Synonyms:
self-complacent , self-satisfied , smug , priggish : complacent may imply a feeling of assured well-being and absence of worry or complaint
the people who suffer most from their conscience are obviously the sensitive and high-minded, while self-approbation comes most easily to the complacent and fortune-favored Jack Horners — M.R.Cohen
It may suggest a gloating superiority or a blameworthy lassitude and lack of drive
his insufferable smile was more complacent than ever — A. Conan Doyle
the chief occasion on which he aspired to rise above the level of complacent mediocrity — H.E.Nettles
self-complacent and self-satisfied stress satisfaction at one's own personality or situation and may suggest ill-based pride, self-deception, depreciation of others, indolent or blind inactivity
the strong, self-complacent Luther declares … that “God himself cannot do without wise men” — R.W.Emerson
those flaunting childish family portraits, with their farce of sentiment and smiling lies, and innocence so self-conscious and self-satisfied — W.M.Thackeray
Stroeve, eager for praise and naively self-satisfied, could never resist displaying his work — W.S.Maugham
smug indicates accustomed feelings about oneself of superiority, rectitude, or utter security
our smug conviction that somehow we are more virtuous than the rest of the world, and that everyone should realize it — Richard Watts
a smug and arrogant look about him, as is often the case with men who have unexpectedly acquired great power or great wealth — Kenneth Roberts
smug often suggests narrow provincialism. priggish may suggest finical adherence to one's ideas or notions, perhaps ill-based, and an odious self-righteousness
there is something artificial and even priggish about Goethe's healthiness, as there is about Baudelaire's unhealthiness — T.S.Eliot
that unpromising young man with high collar and pince-nez whose somewhat priggish air of superiority infuriated most of the Democrats — A.M.Schlesinger b.1917