complaintive

English

Etymology

complaint +‎ -ive

Adjective

complaintive (comparative more complaintive, superlative most complaintive)

  1. Tending to complain, characterized by complaining.
    • 1806, Richard Cumberland, Memoirs of Richard Cumberland: Containing an Account of His Life and Writings‎:
      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.
    • 1992, Elwood Watson, Overcoming Adversity in Academia: Stories from Generation X Faculty:
      On 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'.
    • 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 Counseling:
      The majority of the medical conversations was traditional (37%) or cooperative (37%), while another 25% was more or less conflicting or complaintive in nature.
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