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Complement   /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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Complement" Quotes from Famous Books



... your wife. I was so proud of her when you brought her home! Of all the women in the world, I felt she was The One Woman God had meant for the mother of your children. In every way, mentally and physically, she is your complement and mate. Your differences only make the needed contrast ...
— The One Woman • Thomas Dixon

... continent (1518) with a little band scarcely more than half the complement of a modern regiment, Cortez prepared to traverse an unknown country, thronged by savage tribes with whose character, habits, and means of defense he was wholly unacquainted. This romantic adventure, worthy of the palmiest days ...
— Due South or Cuba Past and Present • Maturin M. Ballou

... a nucleus for the crew of another new destroyer turning up in American waters. Their places are taken by drafts from the training-bases in Europe. The destroyer referred to as turning up in this country makes up her complement from the battleships and other naval units here. The training-bases in this country are established at Newport, Chicago, San Francisco, and Pelham Bay, N.Y. Here the men have many months' instruction. As ...
— Our Navy in the War • Lawrence Perry

... claims of justice afford presumptive proof, hard to be resisted, of a future state wherein there are compensations for the unmerited ills, a complement for the fragmentary experiences, and rectification for the wrongs, of the present life.15 God is just; but he works without impulse or caprice, by laws whose progressive evolution requires time to show their perfect results. Through ...
— The Destiny of the Soul - A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life • William Rounseville Alger

... muralla, esquina a los oficios,"—and the black machine moves on, without look, word, or sign of intelligence. In New York, your Irish coachman grins approval of your order; and even an English flunkey may touch his hat and say, "Yes, Mum." But in the Cuban negro of service, dumbness is the complement of darkness;—you speak, and the patient right hand pulls the strap that leads the off horse, while the other gathers up the reins of the nigh, and the horses, their tails tightly braided and deprived of all movement, seem as mechanical ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various


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