[f. COMPLAIN v. + -ER1.]
1. One who complains or gives audible expression to a sense of injury; a fault-finder, murmurer.
1526. Tindale, Jude 16. These are murmurers, complayners, walkynge after their awne lustes.
1633. J. Clarke, Twofold Praxis, 71. No busie complainer: nor yet no hider of truth.
1762. Beattie, Hermit, ii. Mourn, sweetest complainer, man calls thee to mourn.
1837. Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., II. 96. The most emphatic complainers of the immigration of foreigners.
1878. Jevons, Prim. Pol. Econ., 8. These complainers misunderstand the purpose of a science like political economy.
2. Law. = COMPLAINANT. (The spec. Sc. term.)
1542. Brinklow, Compl., xv. 38. To forfet his whole flocke, half to the kyng and half to the complayner.
c. 1565. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (1728), 35. He dealt their Land, Goods, and Gear to their Creditors and Complainers.
1746–7. Act 20 Geo. II., c. 43 § 35. The said judge … shall condemn the appellant or complainer in such costs as the court shall think proper.
1876. Sir R. Phillimore, in Law Rep., 1 P. Div. 408. The law has always required … all reasonable promptitude to be exhibited by the complainer in seeking legal redress.
1888. Daily News, 17 July, 5/2. In Scotland a complainant is a complainer … and a plaintiff a pursuer.
