complement

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   something added to complete or embellish or make perfect

   a fine wine is a perfect complement to the dinner

2. 2
   noun

   number needed to make up a whole force

   a full complement of workers

3. 3
   noun

   a complete number or quantity

   a full complement

4. 4
   verb

   to make complete or perfect

   supply what is wanting or form the complement to

5. 5
   noun

   The totality, the full amount or number which completes something.

   Queequeg sought a passage to Christian lands. But the ship, having her full complement of seamen, spurned his suit; and not all the King his father's influence could prevail.

6. 6
   noun

   Something which completes, something which combines with something else to make up a complete whole; loosely, something perceived to be a harmonious or desirable partner or addition.

   History is the complement of poetry.

7. 7
   noun

   A word or group of words that completes a grammatical construction in the predicate and that describes or is identified with the subject or object.

   Why has our grammar broken down at this point? It is not difficult to see why. For, we have failed to make any provision for the fact that only some Verbs in English (i.e. Verbs like those italicized in (5) (a), traditionally called Transitive Verbs) subcategorize ( = ‘takeʼ) an immediately following NP Complement, whereas others (such as those italicised in (5) (b), traditionally referred to as Intransitive Verbs) do not.

8. 8
   noun

   The color which, when mixed with the given color, gives black (for mixing pigments) or white (for mixing light).

   The complement of blue is orange.

Etymology

From Middle English complement, from Latin complēmentum (“that which fills up or completes”), from compleō (“to fill up; to complete”) (English complete). Doublet of compliment. The verb is from the noun.