1 [C] a remark that expresses praise or admiration of sb:
to pay sb a compliment (= to praise them for sth) * 'You understand the problem because you're so much older.' 'I'll take that as a compliment!' * It's a great compliment to be asked to do the job. * to return the compliment (= to treat sb in the same way as they have treated you)
2 (compliments) [pl.] (formal) greetings, especially when used to express praise and admiration:
My compliments to the chef! * (BrE) Compliments of the season! (= for Christmas or the New Year) * Please accept these flowers with the compliments of (= as a gift from) the manager.
IDIOMS see BACKHANDED
verb [VN] ~ sb (on sth) to tell sb that you like or admire sth they have done, their appearance, etc:
She complimented him on his excellent German.
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WHICHWORD?
compliment / complement
These words have similar spellings but completely different meanings. If you compliment someone, you say something very nice to them: She complimented me on my English. If one thing complements another, the two things work or look better because they are together: The different flavours complement each other perfectly.
The adjectives are also often confused. Complimentary: She made some very complimentary remarks about my English. It can also mean 'free': There was a complimentary basket of fruit in our room. Complementary: The team members have different but complementary skills.
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
Where does this definition of compliment come from?
This entry for compliment is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is compliment a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, compliment is tagged as noun.
Does compliment appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — compliment appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
