Forms: 4–5 complet, -pleet, 6–7 -pleate, 6–9 -pleat, 4– complete. [ad. L. complēt-us, pa. pple. of complēre to fill up, finish, fulfil, f. com- intensive prefix + *plēre to fill (cf. plēnus full). Cf. F. complet, complète (in Palsgr. 1530; the earlier OF. word was compli, complie from the Romanic form of the vb. complīr(e). About 1600 often accented co·mplete, e.g., by Marlowe, Chapman, and Shakespeare.]
1. Having all its parts or members; comprising the full number or amount; embracing all the requisite items, details, topics, etc.; entire, full.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., I. 323. Ech compleet resoun telliþ treuþe þat we shulde trowe.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., III. iii. Their shoulders broad for complete armour fit.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. § 19 (T.). When one doth wait for another coming, till the assembly … be complete.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. iv. 51.
| What may this mean, | |
| That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, | |
| Revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon, | |
| Making night hideous. |
1611. Bible, 2 Macc. iii. 25. It seemed that hee that sate vpon the horse, had complete harnesse of golde.
1615. Chapman, Odyss., VI. 83. A coach … Stately and complete.
1740. Johnson, Life Barretier. Those, who have received more complete intelligence.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, ‘Times,’ Wks. (Bohn), II. 117. Its information is earliest, completest, and surest.
1871. Ruskin, Munera P. (1880), Pref. 24. The preface is complete in itself.
2. Of a period or space of time: That has run its full course, whole. Of action or events in time: Finished, ended, concluded.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Merch. T., 649. The fourthe day compleet fro noon to noon. Ibid., Nun’s Pr. T., 369. Whan þat the Monthe … That highte March … Was compleet.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., I. xvi. (R.). By the tyme or space of v. yeres complete.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., IV. i. 27. Ioue, let Æneas liue … A thousand compleate courses of the Sunne.
1701. Evelyn, Diary (1827), III. 393. I was this day 81 complete.
1731. Pope, Ep. Burlington, 78. Behold Villario’s ten years toil compleat.
1879. Lockyer, Elem. Astron., 319. The Moon’s nodes perform a complete revolution in nineteen years.
3. Of an action, state, or quality: Realized in its full extent; entire, thorough.
1645. Ord. Lords & Com., Susp. fr. Sacram., 1. Sincerely to endeavour the compleat establishment of Purity and Unity.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 19. A man of compleat stature.
1727. De Foe, Syst. Magic, I. iv. (1840), 115. The greatest and best principles are often illustrated … by their completest contraries.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxx. (1856), 258. Next came the complete inability to obtain drink without manufacturing it.
1854. Ronalds & Richardson, Chem. Technol., I. 199. One pound of peat requires for complete combustion … from 70 to 134 cubic feet of air.
1875. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp. (ed. 5), 443. The triumph of the principle … is complete.
4. Perfect in nature or quality; without defect.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 362. Men shulden þi hooli lif of Crist trowe þat his lawe is compleet.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., I. iii. If thou exceed thy elder brothers worth, And shine in complete virtue more than they.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., Florence, 325. The church of S. Maria Florida, which in some mens opinion is the compleatest structure that ever was set upon the earth.
1779–81. Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. IV. 96. The praise had been compleat had his friend’s virtue been equal to his wit.
1878. Hopps, Rel. & Moral Lect., iv. 16. Everything which trains and educates is leading on to that completer kind of life.
5. Of persons: Fully equipped or endowed; perfect, accomplished, consummate; esp. in reference to a particular art or pursuit, as a complete actor, horseman, merchant. ? Obs. or arch.
1526. Tindale, Coloss. ii. 10. Ye are complete in him which is the heed of all rule and power.
1599. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. v. 197. A compleat villaine, perfect, absolute.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., III. iii. 181.
| Then maruell not, thou great and compleat man, | |
| That all the Greekes begin to worship Aiax. |
1622. Peacham (title), The Compleat Gentleman.
1653. Walton (title), The Compleat Angler.
1709. Kennett, Erasmus on Folly, 31. The compleatest actors shall be hissed off the stage.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 86, ¶ 4. A Knave compleat.
1752. Johnson, Rambler, No 198, ¶ 3. The sailor [thought] all that was necessary to make a man complete might be learned on ship-board.
1822. W. Irving, Braceb. Hall (1845), 109. He was acknowledged to be … the completest gentleman of his time.
† 6. Const. with (cf. replete with); also in. Obs.
1567. J. Conway, in Fenton, Trag. Disc., Ded. Poem.
| Let not in lewe of payne, a tongue compleate with spyte, | |
| Attempt to harme (though powre shal want) the thing that he doth writ. |
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. iv. 73.
| He is compleat in feature, and in minde, | |
| With all good grace, to grace a Gentleman. |
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., iii. 16. The folly of our fore-fathers, wherein … this Island was so compleat.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist., VIII. (1843), 481/2. That neither of them should move upon any action till they should be both complete in greater numbers, than either of them had yet marched with.
7. Complete flower: † (a) one that possesses stamens and pistils; (b) one that also possesses the floral envelopes. Complete metamorphosis (Entom.): one in which the pupa is formed like the imago; so complete pupa.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., ix. 87. The first thing you have to see is, whether the flowers are complete or perfect, that is, have both stamens and pistils.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 306. A flower furnished with both calyx and corolla is called flos completus, a complete flower.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxxi. 239. The pupæ of this subdivision [Arachnida] were named by Linné Complete from their near resemblance to the imago.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 626. As an example of complete metamorphosis … taking the Bombyx mori … the silkworm.
1857. Henfrey, Bot., 88. A flower presenting all the [four] whorls is called complete.
8. quasi-sb. The complete: the full amount (of).
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. V. 145. The age has not yet the complete of benefit.
9. quasi-adv. = COMPLETELY.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, V. 828. Troylus wel woxen was in heighte, And complet formed by proporcioun.
1581. W. Stafford, Exam. Compl., i. (1876), 23. Taughte more perfectly and more compleate.
1611. Chapman, Iliad, VI. 450.
| The royal body yet he left unspoil’d; religion charm’d | |
| That act of spoil; and all in fire he burn’d him cómplete arm’d. |
1837–40. Haliburton, Clockm. (1862), 137. They all know me to be an American citizen here, by my talk, for we speak it complete in New England.
