COMPLAIN.
Synonyms:
| croak, | growl, | grunt, | remonstrate, |
| find fault, | grumble, | murmur, | repine. |
To complain is to give utterance to dissatisfaction or objection, express a sense of wrong or ill treatment. One complains of a real or assumed grievance; he may murmur through mere peevishness or ill temper; he repines, with vain distress, at the irrevocable or the inevitable. Complaining is by speech or writing; murmuring is commonly said of half-repressed utterance; repining of the mental act alone. One may complain of an offense to the offender or to others; he remonstrates with the offender only. Complain has a formal and legal meaning, which the other words have not, signifying to make a formal accusation, present a specific charge; the same is true of the noun complaint.
Antonyms:
| applaud, | approve, | commend, | eulogize, | laud, | praise. |
Prepositions:
Complain of a thing to a person; of one person to another, of or against a person for an act; to an officer; before the court; about a thing.