Meanings
comparative more complaintive · superlative most complaintive
- Tending to complain, characterized by complaining.
The majority of the medical conversations was traditional (37%) or cooperative (37%), while another 25% was more or less conflicting or complaintive in nature.
2007 July, L Meeuwesen, F Tromp, BC Schouten, JA Harmsen, “Cultural differences in managing information during medical interaction: how does the physician get a clue?”, in Patient Education and Counseling2 more examples
The winding streams and hanging hills repeat / Loud groans from ev'ry herd, from ev'ry fold / Complaintive murmurs; heaps on heaps they fall, / There where they fall they lie, corrupt and rot.
1806, Richard Cumberland, Memoirs of Richard Cumberland: Containing an Account of His Life and WritingsOn the Chroncicle Careers website, as well as other mainstream university education publications, I've read articles - some complaintive, some pleased - about how college education nowadays is so 'client-based'.
1992, Elwood Watson, Overcoming Adversity in Academia: Stories from Generation X Faculty
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveexpressing pain or dissatisfaction of resentment
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Turkish şikâyetçi
- şikâyetçitending to complain
Cite this entry
complaintive. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/complaintive
“complaintive.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/complaintive. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “complaintive,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/complaintive.
Source: complaintive on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.