All 4 Uses
complimentary
in
Middlemarch
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- Mr. Mawmsey was not only an overseer (it was about a question of outdoor pay that he was having an interview with Lydgate), he was also asthmatic and had an increasing family: thus, from a medical point of view, as well as from his own, he was an important man; indeed, an exceptional grocer, whose hair was arranged in a flame-like pyramid, and whose retail deference was of the cordial, encouraging kind—jocosely complimentary, and with a certain considerate abstinence from letting out the full force of his mind.†
Chpt 5
- Will was not displeased with that complimentary comparison, even from Mr. Brooke; for it is a little too trying to human flesh to be conscious of expressing one's self better than others and never to have it noticed, and in the general dearth of admiration for the right thing, even a chance bray of applause falling exactly in time is rather fortifying.†
Chpt 5
- With Rosamond, on the other hand, he pouted and was wayward—nay, often uncomplimentary, much to her inward surprise; nevertheless he was gradually becoming necessary to her entertainment by his companionship in her music, his varied talk, and his freedom from the grave preoccupation which, with all her husband's tenderness and indulgence, often made his manners unsatisfactory to her, and confirmed her dislike of the medical profession.†
Chpt 5 *uncomplimentary = criticizingstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in uncomplimentary means not and reverses the meaning of complimentary. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Mr. Dill affected to laugh in a complimentary way at Mrs. Dollop, as a woman who was more than a match for the lawyers; being disposed to submit to much twitting from a landlady who had a long score against him.†
Chpt 7
Definitions:
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(1)
(complimentary as in: a complimentary upgrade) costing nothing
-
(2)
(complimentary as in: complimentary remarks) expressing praise or admiration -- as from a compliment
-
(3)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Do not confuse the senses of complimentary with senses of complementary (which have to do with completing something).