COMPLEMENT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Complement

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/kˈɑmpləmənt/ Listen

verb

Complement v. t.

1.

To supply a lack; to supplement. (R.)

2.

To compliment. (Obs.)

noun

Complement n.

1.

That which fills up or completes; the quantity or number required to fill a thing or make it complete.

2.

That which is required to supply a deficiency, or to complete a symmetrical whole. "History is the complement of poetry."

3.

Full quantity, number, or amount; a complete set; completeness. "To exceed his complement and number appointed him which was one hundred and twenty persons."

4.

(Math.) A second quantity added to a given quantity to make it equal to a third given quantity.

5.

Something added for ornamentation; an accessory. (Obs.) "Without vain art or curious complements."

6.

(Naut.) The whole working force of a vessel.

7.

(Mus.) The interval wanting to complete the octave; the fourth is the complement of the fifth, the sixth of the third.

8.

A compliment. (Obs.)

Arithmetical complement of a logarithm. See under Logarithm.

Arithmetical complement of a number (Math.), the difference between that number and the next higher power of 10; as, 4 is the complement of 6, and 16 of 84.

Complement of an arc or Complement of an angle (Geom.), the difference between that arc or angle and 90°.

Complement of a parallelogram. (Math.) See Gnomon.

In her complement (Her.), said of the moon when represented as full.

See images of 'Complement'

Etymology of 'Complement'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Complement" Quotes from Famous Books

... complement and counterpart of Lady Casterley, one would perhaps have singled out her brother. All her abrupt decision was negated in his profound, ironical urbanity. His voice and look and manner were like his velvet coat, which had here and there a whitish sheen, as if it had been ...

— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... no little amusement to all of them. The entire company, including the captain and the third officer, who were to take part in the business of sight-seeing, consisted of sixteen persons, which was just the complement for four carriages, if they were large enough to ...

— Across India - Or, Live Boys in the Far East • Oliver Optic

... with the perfect complement of our interior nature is in itself the crown of regal power, of which earthly rulers are symbolical. The spiritual body through this union becomes radiant; luminous; and shines with such splendor that it dazzles the eyes of the beholder. What constitutes the beauty and the value of gems—diamonds; ...

— Sex=The Unknown Quantity - The Spiritual Function of Sex • Ali Nomad

... poorest men,[n] to maintain the balance. Such is the arrangement of persons which I recommend, and my reason you will know when you have heard the nature of the entire system. {18} I pass to the distribution of the ships. You must provide a total complement of 300 ships, forming twenty divisions of fifteen ships apiece, and including in each division five of the first hundred vessels,[n] five of the second hundred, and five of the third hundred. Next, you must assign by lot[n] to each board of persons ...

— The Public Orations of Demosthenes, volume 1 • Demosthenes

... shivered by the first shock of care as a mirror by a sword-stroke? Is it a painted mask, washed colourless by the first rain of autumn tears? Is it a flower, so tender that it must perish miserably in the frosty rime of earliest winter? Is love the accident of youth, the complement of a fresh complexion, the corollary of a light step, the physical concomitant of swelling pulses and ...

— The Witch of Prague • F. Marion Crawford

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