What is "complaisance"

Usage examples of "complaisance".

When I was in love I did not encourage my friends to cajole my sweetheart, but I became full of complaisance when time had cooled the heat of my passion.

He twisted his heavy mouth into a faint smile--he was one of those saturnine people who smile with the corners of the mouth down,--and bowed his acknowledgment of my complaisance.

When the motion was made for an address of thanks, couched in terms that savoured of the most implicit complaisance, approbation, and acquiescence in the measures which the crown had taken, the earl of Egmont, and some other anti-courtiers, affirmed, that such an address would be equally servile and absurd.

The complaisance of the King had legalised so many of the views that Nirienne had favoured for years that former charges of treason and sedition were simply nullified.

She promised to wait for me, and allowed me to take such liberties as are usually the signs of perfect complaisance.

The young Count subjected himself to such misinterpretation, among those who observed the increased warmth of civility and complaisance in his behaviour to Ferdinand.

In consequence of this determination, he to the uttermost exerted his good-humour among the few friends of consequence his fortune had left, and even carried his complaisance so far as to become the humble servant of their pleasures, while he attempted to extend his acquaintance in an inferior path of life, where he thought his talents would shine more conspicuous than at the assemblies of the great, and conduce more effectually to the interest of all his designs.

He perceived their sentiments, and encouraged them, by behaving with that sort of complaisance which seems to be the result of engaging condescension in a character of superior dignity and station.

There was also an evident singularity in his dress, which, though intended as an improvement, appeared to be an extravagant exaggeration of the mode, and at once evinced him an original to the discerning eyes of our adventurer, who received him with his usual complaisance, and made a very eloquent acknowledgment of the honour and satisfaction he received from the visit of the representative, and the hospitality of his constituents.

Yet, so far was he from supplying the wants of the young Hungarian, that he did not scruple to receive a share of the miserable pittance which that gentleman made shift to extort from the complaisance of a few companions, whose countenance he still enjoyed.

The Regent received me with all the graciousness and complaisance for which he was so remarkable.

Nevertheless, I thought I detected a fixed design under all this seeming complaisance, and I was on my guard.

I had every reason to congratulate myself on her complaisance, and I thought this meeting a welcome gleam of light when all looked dark around me.

Zaira, who was delighted to be able to watch over me and my fidelity, jested pleasantly on the Frenchwoman and the complaisance of her lover.

For the thing that chiefly delights a man, when some, woman has gone through the solemn buffoonery of yielding to his great love, is the sharp and flattering contrast between her reserve in the presence of other men and her enchanting complaisance in the presence of himself.