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Complement   Listen
noun
Complement  n.  
1.
That which fills up or completes; the quantity or number required to fill a thing or make it complete.
2.
That which is required to supply a deficiency, or to complete a symmetrical whole. "History is the complement of poetry."
3.
Full quantity, number, or amount; a complete set; completeness. "To exceed his complement and number appointed him which was one hundred and twenty persons."
4.
(Math.) A second quantity added to a given quantity to make it equal to a third given quantity.
5.
Something added for ornamentation; an accessory. (Obs.) "Without vain art or curious complements."
6.
(Naut.) The whole working force of a vessel.
7.
(Mus.) The interval wanting to complete the octave; the fourth is the complement of the fifth, the sixth of the third.
8.
A compliment. (Obs.)
Arithmetical complement of a logarithm. See under Logarithm.
Arithmetical complement of a number (Math.), the difference between that number and the next higher power of 10; as, 4 is the complement of 6, and 16 of 84.
Complement of an arc or Complement of an angle (Geom.), the difference between that arc or angle and 90°.
Complement of a parallelogram. (Math.) See Gnomon.
In her complement (Her.), said of the moon when represented as full.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Complement" Quotes from Famous Books



... erected to the memory of Stephen A. Douglas. The date fixed for the President's visit was September 6th, and he left Washington on the 28th of August, accompanied by Secretary Welles, Postmaster-general Randall, General Grant, Admiral Farragut, by a considerable number of army officers and by a complement of private secretaries and newspaper reporters,—apparently intending to convert the journey into a political canvass. Mr. Seward joined the company in New York. The somewhat ludicrous effect produced by combining a series of turbulent partisan meetings to be addressed by the ...
— Twenty Years of Congress, Volume 2 (of 2) • James Gillespie Blaine

... crew gave information that the frigate was there fitting for sea by the Spaniards, to whom the mutineers had delivered her; that she was strongly armed, and manned with a half more than her former complement. It soon became known on board the Cerberus that Captain Walford had volunteered to cut out the frigate, but that the admiral objected to the exploit ...
— Paul Gerrard - The Cabin Boy • W.H.G. Kingston

... serious fatigue, carry one for miles. The warriors who now propelled them, were naked in all save their leggings and waist cloths, their bodies and faces begrimed with paint: and as they drew neater, fifteen was observed to be the complement of each. They sat by twos on the narrow thwarts; and, with their faces to the prow, dipped their paddles simultaneously into the stream, with a regularity of movement not to be surpassed by the most experienced ...
— The Canadian Brothers - or The Prophecy Fulfilled • John Richardson

... be anything but pure love between the man and the woman who are the complement of each other. What a fascinating picture you three made! And you both love the child. I'm glad she is going to have a chance with education. With those eyes she ought to be beyond ...
— A Modern Cinderella • Amanda M. Douglas

... the room. A littered, greasy cook stove stood in one corner. Close to it at either end were wooden couches, upon which were strewn a few tattered spreads and blankets, stained and grimy. A broken table, a decrepit chest of drawers, and a few rickety chairs completed the complement of furniture. The walls were unadorned, except for a stained chromo of the Virgin, and the plaster had fallen away in many places. There was only one window in the room. Several of its panes were broken and stuffed with ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... the Bible offers less of the ethical and the spiritual than of the physical possibilities of woman as the complement to man; but esoterically considered, it is found to exact the spiritual possibilities above the rest—above even the like possibilities of the man. The Bible has been, and will continue to be, a stumbling-block ...
— The Woman's Bible. • Elizabeth Cady Stanton

... other people that it was a great change to find another person living entirely for him; and it was a change that was wholly beneficial. As his nature deepened Elisabeth's, so her nature expanded his; and each was the better for the influence of the other, as each was the complement of the other. So after a time Christopher grew almost as light-hearted as Elisabeth, while Elisabeth grew almost as tender-hearted as Christopher. For both of them the former things had passed away, and ...
— The Farringdons • Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler

... questioner was not familiar to him. But leaving the worthy captain to question the landlord, without any satisfactory information, and to hasten the chaise for himself, we accompany the travellers on their way to Laughton. There were but two,—the proper complement of a post-chaise,—and they were both of the ruder sex. The elder of the two was a man of middle age, but whom the wear and tear of active life had evidently advanced towards the state called elderly. But there was still abundant life in his ...
— Lucretia, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... of converting the so-called Indian Territory south of Kansas into a home for the Indian, and erecting therein a Territorial form of government, is one of great importance as a complement of the existing Indian policy. The question of removal to that Territory has within the past year been presented to many of the tribes resident upon other and less desirable portions of the public domain, and has generally been received by them with favor. As a preliminary step to the organization ...
— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant • James D. Richardson

... But shall they remain undone if we don't do them? The city of New York is so great that it swings the State of New York. The virtues that are in each do not complement one another, as the virtues of Boston and Massachusetts do. Where shall you find, in our house or in our grounds, the city and the State joining to an effect of beauty? When you come to New York, what you see of grandeur ...
— Imaginary Interviews • W. D. Howells

... complement of mine, with the missing element in it which I have been groping after through so many friendships that I have tired of, and through—Hush! Is the door fast? Talking loud is a bad ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... unity of the creature, made perfect by each having something to bestow and to receive, bound to the rest by a thousand various necessities and various gratitudes; humility in each rejoicing to admire in his fellow that which he finds not in himself, and each being in some respect the complement ...
— Frondes Agrestes - Readings in 'Modern Painters' • John Ruskin

... cases the multiple switchboard at each office is divided into two portions, termed respectively the A board and the B board. Each of these boards, with the exception that will be pointed out in a subsequent chapter, is provided with a full complement of multiple jacks for all of the lines entering that office. At the A board are located operators, called A operators, who answer all the calls from the subscribers whose lines terminate in that office. In ...
— Cyclopedia of Telephony & Telegraphy Vol. 1 - A General Reference Work on Telephony, etc. etc. • Kempster Miller

... a Trireme.—With her full complement of rowers the benches of the "Invincible" fairly swarm with life. There are 62 rowers to the upper tier (thranites), 58 for the middle tier (zygites), and 54 for the lower (thalamites), each man with his own individual oar. The TRHANITES with the longest oars (full 13 feet 6 ...
— A Day In Old Athens • William Stearns Davis

... accompany Mr R., but found that neither of them, after the accident which had befallen the canoe, were inclined to trust themselves on the water again without a proper pilot. Mr R. moreover promised, that within a fortnight a canoe should be forwarded to them with a proper complement of natives. The fortnight expired, and even five-and-twenty days, when, giving over all hopes, they constructed a raft on which they ventured themselves, with their provisions and property. The raft, badly framed, struck against the branch of a sunken tree, and overset, all their effects perishing ...
— Perils and Captivity • Charlotte-Adelaide [nee Picard] Dard

... special occupation, and even the exclusive work of a scientific speciality, ends by giving the cerebral energy itself an exclusive character. The moral sentiments become atrophied. Exclusiveness in a speciality, practiced without any complement, easily leads to exclusiveness in love (not in the sexual appetite!). We often see two egoists, or several in a family, working together to exploit the rest of society. As long as they keep in good health and their business prospers, as long ...
— The Sexual Question - A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study • August Forel

... has now existed for more than three thousand years, was perfected by degrees; for it has been clearly ascertained that the earliest known did not comprise more than one-half or, at most, two-thirds of the letters which eventually formed its complement. Thus, the Pelasgian alphabet, which is derived from the Phoenician, and is the parent of the Greek and Roman, consisted originally of only twelve ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 8 - The Later Renaissance: From Gutenberg To The Reformation • Editor-in-Chief: Rossiter Johnson

... riding-breeches, boots, and spurs, there were not lacking those among the sturdy foot who looked upon the whole proceeding with great disfavor. Cram had two "rankers" with him when he came, but one had transferred out in favor of Waring, and now his battery was supplied with the full complement of subalterns,—Doyle, very much out of place, commanding the right section (as a platoon was called in those days), Waring commanding the left, Ferry serving as chief of caissons, and Pierce as battery adjutant and general ...
— Waring's Peril • Charles King

... mile of the city of Haarlem, became a resort of the artists, then mixing freely in great society, giving and receiving hints as to the domestic picturesque. Creatures of leisure—of leisure on both sides—they were the appropriate complement of Dutch prosperity, as it was understood just then. Sebastian the elder could almost have wished his son to be one of them: it was the next best thing to the being an influential publicist or statesman. The Dutch had just ...
— Imaginary Portraits • Walter Pater

... observe the old duck staying longer and longer on her nest each day as she lays the last egg or two, and you may be sure that she has fairly begun to sit if you find her still on her nest about 6 or 7 P.M. A day or two before she begins to sit, her nest should be made up to its proper complement of eggs, and it is always wise to keep a few eggs in hand for such contingencies. The number of eggs a duck can sit on depends largely on the size of the duck and also the depth and breadth of the nest; given favourable conditions a duck can manage ...
— Wild Ducks - How to Rear and Shoot Them • W. Coape Oates

... life should be the promotion of this friend's welfare. She had just begun to love after this fashion, had taught herself to believe that she might combine something of the pleasure of idolatry towards her friend with a full complement of duty towards her husband, when Phineas came to her with his tale of love for Violet Effingham. The lesson which she got then was a very rough one,—so hard that at first she could not bear it. Her anger at his love for her ...
— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope

... hair was pulled out at the sides until her head was as big as a bushel basket, wore a pink blouse and a green skirt. The youth, stunted and pale, was gorgeous only as to tie, but quite evidently she considered him her complement. For they were busy drinking beer from a bottle, turn about, and kissing each other delightedly between swallows. Joyselle started, drawing a deep breath, and Brigit, without moving her head, looked at him sideways, as the ...
— The Halo • Bettina von Hutten

... under the control of Mr. Wright, Chief Commissioner; it consists of about forty foot and sixty mounted police, with the usual complement of inspectors and sergeants; their uniform is blue—with white facings, their head-quarters are by ...
— A Lady's Visit to the Gold Diggings of Australia in 1852-53. • Mrs. Charles (Ellen) Clacey

... fact that animals may be affected with the disease and disseminate the germs, even though they carry the fetus to full time, a diagnosis in such instances is only possible by laboratory methods. For this purpose the agglutination and also the complement-fixation tests are being used with splendid results, and by the aid of these biological tests it is possible to determine all infected animals in a herd. The tests are carried out with the serum from animals to be examined, only a teaspoonful of serum being ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... of texts not incorporated in the Mishnah, the order of which is followed, now to explain it, now to complement it, and sometimes to contradict it. The redaction of the Tosefta is attributed to R. Hiyyah ...
— Rashi • Maurice Liber

... large establishment, a full complement of rooms should be provided for the Turkish bath—viz. three hot rooms, a washing and shampooing room, and a cooling room. They will, of course, be on a small scale; but the whole number should be provided. A plunge bath should also be added, but in small hydropathics ...
— The Turkish Bath - Its Design and Construction • Robert Owen Allsop

... universe nothing is wasted, I suppose. Everything has its complement, its response. For every bashful man, there must be a ...
— Quaint Courtships • Howells & Alden, Editors

... little cackling laugh, "that men would be extravergant, especially in some things. There are some things they're fidgety about and will have just so. Well, well, who has a better right than a well-to-do, fore-handed man? Woman is to complement the man, and it should be her aim to study the great—the great—shall we say reason, for her being? Which is adaptation," and she uttered the word with feeling, assured that Holcroft could not fail of being impressed by it. The poor man was bolting such food as had been prepared ...
— He Fell in Love with His Wife • Edward P. Roe

... papers are not only, as one could foresee, of historic importance, but they are moreover capital reading. There is a world of unaffected geniality and humour about them that forms a most admirable complement to such serious matters as the protracted negotiations over the U-boat campaign, or the now famous incriminating telegram addressed by the ALL-HIGHEST to President WILSON in the days before the Huns had quite decided with what lies to defend the indefensible. This document ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 153, Dec. 5, 1917 • Various

... pictures of popular carousal on the heights of Montmartre, the roystering realism of the scene in a dressmakers' shop, the splendid acting of Miss Garden and Mme. Bressler-Gianoli, the fine singing of M. Dalmors, and the more than superb acting and singing of M. Gilibert—found their complement in the finish of a hundred little details, insignificant in themselves, but singularly potent in helping to create the atmosphere without which "Louise" would be little better than Bowery melodrama,—a play that would be a hundred times more effective if its hero and heroine ...
— Chapters of Opera • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... some inconvenience, Pericles got a hundred and fifty galleys ready, and having embarked many tried soldiers, both foot and horse, was about to sail out, giving great hope to his citizens, and no less alarm to his enemies, upon the sight of so great a force. And now the vessels having their complement of men, and Pericles being gone aboard his own galley, it happened that the sun was eclipsed, and it grew dark on a sudden, to the affright of all, for this was looked upon as extremely ominous. Pericles, therefore, perceiving the steersman seized with fear and at a loss what to do, took his ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough

... porch, sheltered from publicity by a multitude of palms and flowering plants, a white-jacketed negro appeared with a noble smile and a more important tray, whereon tinkled bedewed glasses and a crystal pitcher, against whose sides the ice clinked sweetly. There was a complement of straws. ...
— The Gentleman From Indiana • Booth Tarkington

... didn't see anyone there I recognized, but I heard some of them talk. One was taking a little veronal; another said something about heroin. It was high-toned hitting the pipe, if you call it that—a Turkish bath, followed by massage, and then a safe complement of anything you wanted, taken leisurely by ...
— The Ear in the Wall • Arthur B. Reeve

... gradual production of the present physical state of our globe, by natural causes operating through long ages of time, it will be little disposed to allow that living beings have made their appearance in another way, and the speculations of De Maillet and his successors are the natural complement of Scilla's demonstration of the ...
— Darwiniana • Thomas Henry Huxley

... Clinics; Extension of Clinics; Training at Clinics for Nurses, Students, &c.; Cases attending until non-infective; Male and Female; Lady Patrols; Social Hygiene Society, Work of; Laboratories and Free Treatment: Complement Fixation Test for Gonorrhoea 14 Page Section 3.—Licensed Brothels: Observations on; Dangers of Infection from; Statistics; North European Conference's Resolution; Flexner's Views; ...
— Venereal Diseases in New Zealand (1922) • Committee Of The Board Of Health

... Doctor Denton's house, although divided by two rails respectively toward the top and bottom into three sections, the middle section being the largest. Two small drop handles with pendant rings comprise the entire visible complement of hardware on ...
— The Colonial Architecture of Philadelphia • Frank Cousins

... the Arabic. The complement of the amplitude, or an arc between the meridian of a place and any given ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth

... with the perfect complement of our interior nature is in itself the crown of regal power, of which earthly rulers are symbolical. The spiritual body through this union becomes radiant; luminous; and shines with such splendor that it dazzles the eyes of the beholder. What constitutes the beauty and the value ...
— Sex=The Unknown Quantity - The Spiritual Function of Sex • Ali Nomad

... public far larger, far more real and genuine than this, that you will one day have to appeal. It is in their presence that you will finish your education. The final school for the actor is his audience; they are the necessary complement to the exercise of his art, and it is by the impression he produces on them that he will ultimately stand or fall; on their verdict, and on their verdict alone, will his success or failure as an artist depend. But, ...
— [19th Century Actor] Autobiographies • George Iles

... hidden in an attic; but when the timbers were mortised together, the boats had to be brought downstairs, where one of the Huron slaves caught a glimpse of them. Boats of such a size he had never before seen. Each was capable of carrying fifteen passengers with full complement of baggage. Spring rains were falling in floods. The convert Huron had heard the Jesuits tell of Noah's ark in the deluge. Returning to the Mohawks, he spread a terrifying report of an impending flood and of strange arks of refuge built by the white men. Emissaries were appointed to visit the ...
— Pathfinders of the West • A. C. Laut

... was divided into lancers and carabineers. The unit was the squadron, varying in number from sixty to one hundred and fifty, until the year 1591, when the regular complement of the squadron was fixed at ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... errors; it is not necessary that one fourth part should he sailors. The Terrible privateer, Captain Death, stood the hottest engagement of any ship last war, yet had not twenty sailors on board, though her complement of men was upwards of two hundred. A few able and social sailors will soon instruct a sufficient number of active landmen in the common work of a ship. Wherefore, we never can be more capable to begin on maritime matters than ...
— Common Sense • Thomas Paine

... silence. She shivered, and drew her cloak more closely round her, as she stood at the gate; for the healthy blood was running rapidly through her veins after her brisk walk, and the deadly cold damp air from the church struck her with a shudder, which was but the physical complement of the moral impression produced by the aspect ...
— A Siren • Thomas Adolphus Trollope

... the opposite side of the road, are capable of accommodating nearly 2000 troops—for a long time however the complement stationed here seldom exceeded a few companies, and for months together there would not be even a serjeant's guard: but latterly the depots of several regiments have been removed hither: so that there are now often from 1000 to 1500 ...
— Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight • George Brannon

... a man-of-war of the sixth rate, mounting twenty-four guns; her complement was 150 men, with three lieutenants, and ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... we may term a complement of the os pedis. It exists, in fact, simply in order that the os coronae may have a sufficiently large articulatory surface to play upon. One wonders at first that Nature did not arrive at this by originally placing ...
— Diseases of the Horse's Foot • Harry Caulton Reeks

... with a light mind. It was good to talk to a man again, to hear a deep masculine voice, to look at a broad strong frame. Putting aside all question of love and marriage, the convent life is no more satisfying than the monastic. Each sex was designed by God to be the complement of the other. Each must suffer from ...
— The Independence of Claire • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... Long-boat. Old Mr. Rarx was one of her complement, and he was the only passenger who had greatly misbehaved since the ship struck. Others had been a little wild, which was not to be wondered at, and not very blamable; but, he had made a lamentation and uproar which it was dangerous for the people to hear, as there is always contagion in weakness ...
— The Wreck of the Golden Mary • Charles Dickens

... ready, sir," obsequiously replied the landlord, who had just sense enough in his dull cranium to reflect also, by way of complement, "So is Constable Swallow." ...
— Mistress Nell - A Merry Tale of a Merry Time • George C. Hazelton, Jr.

... happened that on a cold, foggy morning in February, 1862, I found myself with an old schoolmate—George Custard—on board of, as it was then customary to advertise, "the good ship, 'City of Brisbane,' 1,100 tons burthen, 'Neville,' Master," which lay in Plymouth Sound, waiting her final complement ...
— Reminiscences of Queensland - 1862-1869 • William Henry Corfield

... part of the planet, concealed in the depths of the towering jungle growth, a mammoth space-cruiser was receiving her complement of passengers. Airboats, flying at their terrific velocity through the heavy, steaming fog as closely-spaced as their controller rays would permit, flashed signals along their guiding beams, dove into the apparently impenetrable jungle, and added their ...
— Skylark Three • Edward Elmer Smith

... things, as those initiated to their mysteries knew. More obvious is the meaning of these three forms, the Diana, Minerva, and Vesta. Unlike in the expression of their beauty, but alike in this,—that each was self-sufficing. Other forms were only accessories and illustrations, none the complement to one like these. Another might, indeed, be the companion, and the Apollo and Diana set off one another's beauty. Of the Vesta, it is to be observed, that not only deep-eyed, deep-discerning Greece, but ruder Rome, who represents the only form of good man (the ...
— Woman in the Ninteenth Century - and Kindred Papers Relating to the Sphere, Condition - and Duties, of Woman. • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... account of Scotland, in the volume about the Hebrides, it is stated that a child was born, and lived to the age of, I think, two years, with an eye in the back of its head, in addition to the usual complement in front. It could evidently see with this eye; for when its cap was drawn down over it, it ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 110, December, 1866 - A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics • Various

... strongest case a man can have with the British public is to be an ill-used man—that is to say, if you be a man of mark, or note, or station. To be ill-used, as one poor, friendless, and ignoble, is no more than the complement of your condition. It is in the fitness of things that pauperism, which we English have declared to be illegal, should neither be fondled nor caressed. To be ill-used profitably there must be something pictorial ...
— Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General - Originally Published In Blackwood's Magazine - 1864 • Charles Lever

... excellent officer, between whom and Custer there was, it seemed, a great deal of generous rivalry. But, in the association of the two in the same command there was strength, for each was in a sort the complement of the other. Unlike in temperament, in appearance, and in their style of fighting, they were at one in the essentials that go to make a ...
— Personal Recollections of a Cavalryman - With Custer's Michigan Cavalry Brigade in the Civil War • J. H. (James Harvey) Kidd

... swimbladder has, also, been worked in as an accessory to the auditory organs of certain fish, or, for I do not know {191} which view is now generally held, a part of the auditory apparatus has been worked in as a complement to the swimbladder. All physiologists admit that the swimbladder is homologous, or "ideally similar" in position and structure with the lungs of the higher vertebrate animals: hence there seems to me to be no great difficulty in believing that natural selection has actually ...
— On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection • Charles Darwin

... Bounty, under the command of Lieutenant Bligh, who had already served as master under Captain Cook, to convey a cargo of these young trees from the South Sea Islands, to the West Indies. Forty-six men formed the ship's complement. ...
— A New Voyage Round the World in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26. Vol. 1 • Otto von Kotzebue

... I may compare with certain of the phenomena of radioactivity. As radium is constantly giving off electronic emanations and changing its atomic structure thereby, so katultron is constantly giving off ultronic emanations, and so changing its sub-electronic form, while metultron, its complement, is constantly attracting and absorbing ultronic values, and so changing its sub-electronic nature in the opposite direction. Thin plates of these two substances, when placed properly in juxtaposition, with insulating ...
— The Airlords of Han • Philip Francis Nowlan

... chief persons in the tale; and rarely have any characters been brought out so distinctly within a work of such dimensions; the contrast between them runs through every feature, yet each is the necessary complement to the other; the abuse which they vent in the ball-room each against his dearest friend, and in the ears of almost a stranger, is in the true style of our frail affections, veering before the slightest puff of self-will; nor is there a circumstance ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey

... independent is easily exploded by computing the sum of powers of 2. If the result loops with period 1 with sign , you are on a sign-magnitude machine. If the result loops with period 1 at -1, you are on a twos-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than 1, including the beginning, you are on a ones-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than 1, not including the beginning, your machine isn't binary ...
— The Jargon File, Version 4.0.0

... order on the deck before him, each article being placed separately, that the officer may count, and, if he pleases, examine them, after the mates and mids have first called over the names, to ascertain that every man has the proper complement of articles, in good order, and well washed. A note is then taken of what things are wanted, in the way of slops, to supply worn-out and condemned clothes. "Slops" is the technical name for jackets, trousers, shirts, and other articles of ...
— The Lieutenant and Commander - Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from - Fragments of Voyages and Travels • Basil Hall

... were so much alike. As it was, Burke contented himself by writing a book after the style of Bolingbroke, carrying the great man's arguments one step further with intent to show their fallacy. The paraphrase is always a complement, and is never well done except by a man who loves the original and is a bit ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 7 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Orators • Elbert Hubbard

... associations as to constitute what is called living matter. A question that at once suggests itself to any one who conceives even vaguely the relative uniformity of conditions in the different star groups is as to whether other worlds than ours have also their complement of living forms. The question has interested speculative science more perhaps in our generation than ever before, but it can hardly be said that much progress has been made towards a definite answer. At first blush the demonstration ...
— A History of Science, Volume 5(of 5) - Aspects Of Recent Science • Henry Smith Williams

... in his hands the black complement to all those other gifts science was urging upon unregenerate mankind, the gift of destruction, and he was an adventurous rather than ...
— The World Set Free • Herbert George Wells

... keeping the poor in subjection; and accused workmen are tried, not by a jury of their peers, but by conspiracies of their exploiters. The press is the press of the rich and the curse of the poor: it becomes dangerous to teach men to read. The priest becomes the mere complement of the policeman in the machinery by which the countryhouse oppresses the village. Worst of all, marriage becomes a class affair: the infinite variety of choice which nature offers to the young in search of a mate is narrowed to a ...
— Preface to Androcles and the Lion - On the Prospects of Christianity • George Bernard Shaw

... in the light of the relationship of naval operations to land areas (page 63), indicate the importance which may attach to immediate availability, with a naval force, in addition to its own air strength, of a proper complement of land forces (with appropriate air strength) which are organized, equipped, ...
— Sound Military Decision • U.s. Naval War College

... to be supplied from the Scorpius complement. One landing boat, large, model twenty-eight. Eight each, oxygen cutting unit gas bottles. Four each, ...
— Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet • Harold Leland Goodwin

... was at once convinced that here was a man upon whom he could rely, and it had not taken Colonel Katterfeld long to establish the correctness of the Governor's judgment. He succeeded in being the first to raise the full complement of men for his regiment in Wisconsin, and was therefore the first to leave for the front. The rush for officers' commissions was tremendous and the staff of officers was therefore excellent. One day an officer, named ...
— Banzai! • Ferdinand Heinrich Grautoff

... among the papers confided by Napoleon to Fesch. The proofs of authenticity are complete. It seems miraculous that its writer should have become, as he did, master of a concise and nervous style when once his words became the complement of his deeds. ...
— The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte - Vol. I. (of IV.) • William Milligan Sloane

... was hid from view by the simple covering of green baize, which moreover constituted the garniture of the windows, were to be seen other products of their art. Here stood upon an elevated stand a model of a bark canoe, filled with its complement of paddlers carved in wood and dressed in full costume; the latter executed with such singular fidelity of feature, that although the speaking figures sprung not from the experienced and classic chisel of the sculptor but from ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson

... for each other, and have shown equal capacity in the ordinary range of human duties. In governing nations, leading armies, piloting ships across the sea, rowing life-boats in terrific gales; in art, science, invention, literature, woman has proved herself the complement of man in the world of thought and action. This difference does not compel us to spread our tables with different food for man and woman, nor to provide in our common schools a different course of study ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... three divisions of infantry and a complement of artillery, and with cavalry on each flank, had fallen on the two unsupported divisions of McCook, choosing his place and manner of attack skilfully. Rousseau's right was struck soon after Terrill's brigade was driven ...
— Slavery and Four Years of War, Vol. 1-2 • Joseph Warren Keifer

... seems reared with a view to Heaven rather than Earth, and whose arches, massive or soaring, neither gain nor lose by the accidental presence of ephemeral human creatures below them. No, the building seemed to cry out for a congregation, and the mind's eye involuntarily peopled it with its Sunday complement of ...
— Adventures in Criticism • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... the Southern part of the Province, so that they might be brought into closer touch with the markets of Rosario and Buenos Aires. They accordingly bought the estancia La Barrancosa in 1906, and have been constantly increasing the area there under alfalfa, equipping it with a full complement of wells and fencing. This estancia lies half way between the towns of San Isabel and Venado Tuerto, from the latter of which it is distant about sixteen miles. But, during the year 1909, a new broad-gauge railway line was opened, ...
— Argentina From A British Point Of View • Various

... up ten thousand chariots, two horses and riders upon them, a pair of chariot-horses without a seat, and an attendant and charioteer, two hoplites, two archers, two slingers, three stone-shooters, three javelin-men, and four sailors to make up the complement ...
— Critias • Plato

... 'planes has caused comment, nor did there appear to be any heavy guns remaining on the sector apart from such artillery that forms a Brigade complement. Fritz, on the other hand, maintained uncomfortable concentration upon the towns and roads with a large number of guns brought up from somewhere (Lille—where an Army Corps had been awaiting transfer to Italy). The number of gas shells ...
— Norman Ten Hundred - A Record of the 1st (Service) Bn. Royal Guernsey Light Infantry • A. Stanley Blicq

... history was called upon to undertake. Appeal to Jehovah was always in these circumstances resorted to; His court was properly that of last resort, but the ordinary authorities were so inadequate that it had often enough to be applied to. Theocracy, if one may so say, arose as the complement of anarchy. Actual and legal existence (in the modern sense) was predicable only of each of the many clans; the unity of the nation was realised in the first instance only through its religion. It was out ...
— Prolegomena to the History of Israel • Julius Wellhausen

... to educate himself; but he had a far harder struggle, and the enterprise which he showed in commerce in early manhood would have left him the possessor of a vast fortune, had he not preferred to devote his energies to public causes. The two men were by nature well suited to complement one another. If Cobden was the more ingenious in explaining an argument, Bright was more forcible in asserting a principle. If Cobden could, above all other men, convince the intellects of his hearers, Bright could, as ...
— Victorian Worthies - Sixteen Biographies • George Henry Blore

... performing; and they refreshed their memories with his heroic virtues, and his brilliant deeds in the tender and flowery years of his age—gifts that assured us that he was glorious and triumphant in the court of Heaven. The complement of the solemn splendor of that day was the reverend father, Fray Vicente Argenta, of the seraphic order, and past provincial of this province of San Gregorio. He, occupying the pulpit, took up the space of an hour with ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXXVI, 1649-1666 • Various

... That cry was always clear, and with it came, like a complement or a corollary, the name of the ...
— "Unto Caesar" • Baroness Emmuska Orczy

... the tempest united after some delay in the port of the island of Gomera, and being joined there by another, fitted out in the Canaries by people eager to go to America, the fleet was thus brought up to its original complement. The commander divided his squadron in to two sections, the first of which, composed of the fastest vessels, he kept under his command, while the second was placed under command of Antonio de Torres. Ovando's division reached Hispaniola on the ...
— Bartholomew de Las Casas; his life, apostolate, and writings • Francis Augustus MacNutt

... board! —Lower away, boarding Boats "—and no sooner said than done. The stranger was now at musket-shot. It was worthy the courage of a Nelson or a Cochrane, to think of boarding at such odds;—a mere handful of men, to a full complement of a heavy Frigate's crew! The idea was altogether in keeping with the best naval tactics and skill. Foreseeing that one broadside from such an enemy would sink him, he must ANTICIPATE such a crisis. ...
— Warlock o' Glenwarlock • George MacDonald

... twelvemonth: the present afternoon's proceedings— including as they did the almost certain sacrificing of a sister to a violent death, together with the probable destruction of a father, no longer of an age to trifle with apoplexy—being but a fit and proper complement to what had gone before. It would be long, as Robina herself that evening bitterly declared, before she would again give ear to the promptings of ...
— They and I • Jerome K. Jerome

... Passchendaele (he was really going to Boulogne), but wanted to get a good flying start, and we set off. We were a perfectly organised unit, consisting of four sections (including two No. 2 Brownie Sections), A.S.C. complement (one lunch basket), Aid Post (bandage and thermometer, carried as a matter of course by Sadie, who thinks of these things), a Scotch dog (mascot) and a flask of similar nationality (medical comforts for ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Jan. 15, 1919 • Various

... ship there should be the most completely equipped expedition for scientific purposes connected with the Polar regions, both as regards men and material, that ever left these shores. In this he succeeded. He had on board a fuller complement of geologists, one of them especially trained for the study, of physiography, biologists, physicists, and surveyors than ever before composed the staff of a Polar expedition. Thus Captain Scott's objects ...
— The Voyages of Captain Scott - Retold from 'The Voyage of the "Discovery"' and 'Scott's - Last Expedition' • Charles Turley

... masses of gas. They are scarcely visible to the naked eye, but are among the most interesting objects in the heavens when seen through a telescope. The other suggestive heavenly body was our sister planet, Saturn. Besides having a full complement of moons, Saturn has around it, as distant as we would expect moons to be, three great rings. These look very much as if one's hat, with an enormously wide brim, should have the connection between the rim and the hat broken out ...
— The Meaning of Evolution • Samuel Christian Schmucker

... glided smoothly out from the dock to which it had been made fast. Behind it the water boiled as if it had been stirred by some invisible furnace. The graceful lines of the boat, its manifest power and speed, formed a fitting complement to the bright sunshine and clear air which rested over the waters ...
— Go Ahead Boys and the Racing Motorboat • Ross Kay

... he brightened up. "For my part, I don't believe there is a word of truth in it. Since I have seen him, indeed, I have quite changed my opinion—a fine figure of a man, looking an aristocrat every inch of him. Such a contrast and complement to our dear Elinor—and so fond of her. A man like that would never have a hand in any sham concern. If it was really a bogus company, as people say, he must be one of the sufferers. That is quite my decided opinion; only the ladies, you know—the ladies who have not seen him, and who are so ...
— The Marriage of Elinor • Margaret Oliphant

... hazards of the chase, she now suddenly sees before her the creature with the extravagant proboscis. Accustomed to the first, will she fail to know the second? By no means: at the first glance she recognizes it as her own; and the cell already furnished with a few Brachyderes receives its complement of Balanini. If these two species are to seek, if the burrows are far from the holm-oaks, the Cerceris will attack Weevils displaying the greatest variety of genus, species, form and coloration, levying tribute indifferently on Sitones, Cneorhini, Geonemi, ...
— More Hunting Wasps • J. Henri Fabre

... demands is just what the brunette possesses, and when we unite the blonde to a lady of the brunette type, we find results that are far more satisfactory. Here again we have followed the law of nature, and harmony is the result—each is the complement of the other. The genius and versatility of the blond are here fortified with executiveness and endurance, while her concentrative and intense nature is vitalized and warmed with the enthusiasm, the geniality and adaptiveness ...
— How to Become Rich - A Treatise on Phrenology, Choice of Professions and Matrimony • William Windsor

... men in cities vast find true for them also. The orator distrusts at first the fitness of his frank confessions, his want of knowledge of the persons he addresses, until he finds that he is the complement[65] of his hearers;—that they drink his words because he fulfills for them their own nature; the deeper he dives into his privatest, secretest presentiment, to his wonder he finds this is the most acceptable, most public and universally true. The people ...
— Essays • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... it has been, Patty, we will not tell. I was coming home from Africa with an emigrant, a Briton, my capturer, indeed—that officer in the blockading squadron on that coast who seized my privateer, the Ida, with all her complement of Guinea slaves. His name was all I took from him—you got ...
— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend

... stern out of the water, and pulling thirty paddles, she is a dangerous customer when mounting four swivels and carrying a crew of twenty men with small arms. She is called the 'Snake,' or 'Ular.' The second boat, somewhat shorter and less fast, is named the 'Dragon;' her complement of paddles twenty, and her fighting-men twenty, make one hundred and forty in, two boats. The long canoes carry fifteen men each, which will bring the force up to one hundred and eighty-five; and one boat of the rajah's will complete two hundred men, of ...
— The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido - For the Suppression of Piracy • Henry Keppel

... with his birth takes some time, as the foster parents suffer from what is described by writers on psychology as "total recall," and are unable to select the salient details. The characters are rather dim and indistinct, the shadowiest of all being Emma, who has no personality at all, and is a mere complement to the immaculate Edmund's happiness. The good and bad are sharply distinguished. There are no "doubtful cases," and consequently there is no difficulty in distributing appropriate rewards and ...
— The Tale of Terror • Edith Birkhead

... disorder," she cried as she piloted me through these various encumbrances to a small but exquisitely furnished room still glorying in its full complement of ornaments and pictures. "This trouble which has come to one I love has made it very hard for me to do anything. I feel helpless, at ...
— The Millionaire Baby • Anna Katharine Green

... had instantly said—"I shall call you Louise." Rachel was ravished, Louisa is a vulgar name—at least it is vulgar in the Five Towns, where every second general servant bears it. But Louise was full of romance, distinction, and beauty. And it was the perfect complement to Louis. Louis and Louise—ideal coincidence! "But nobody except me is to call you Louise," he had added. And ...
— The Price of Love • Arnold Bennett

... the Emperor—whose complicated affairs are so entangled with those of France that they cannot be wholly separated, each in some measure forming the complement of the other. The command-in-chief of the German army was given to Maurice of Saxony—an able general, full of resource, daring and dauntless in the field, crafty and cautious in the cabinet as Charles himself. Throughout the winter he secretly assembled troops, preparing ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... and abandonment of this devotion was as incense to her flirtatious soul. Avid of admiration and experienced in most of the arts and wiles necessary to secure this from contiguous males, small wonder that the unsophisticated Larry became her easy prey long before she had brought to bear the full complement ...
— The Major • Ralph Connor

... to see your friend, I only want you to bring yourself back, Harry, safe and sound, with your proper complement of arms and legs," she answered, smiling through ...
— Won from the Waves • W.H.G. Kingston

... romantic hope, a sanction whose doctrines—unlike those of the sentimental theology—did not fly in the face of human instincts and needs. Nor was it a theology devoid of inspiration and poetry, though poetry might be called its complement. With all that was beautiful and true in the myths dear to mankind it did not conflict, annulling only the vicious dogmatism of literal interpretation. In this connection I remembered something that Krebs ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... of Von Buelow's army. On the Belgian side no attempt was made to follow up the advantage. The reason given is that the Germans were seen to be in strong cavalry force, an arm lost totally in the military complement of Liege. The German losses were undoubtedly severe, especially in front of Fort Barchon. This was one of the major forts, triangular in shape, and surrounded by a ditch and barbed wire entanglements. The ...
— The Story of the Great War, Volume III (of 12) - The War Begins, Invasion of Belgium, Battle of the Marne • Francis J. Reynolds, Allen L. Churchill, and Francis Trevelyan

... arrived. At Loodianah one of the two regiments of native cavalry had actually marched for Scinde before it was relieved, leaving that post, as it is at present, with one regiment, instead of the usual complement of two regiments of cavalry. At the other stations no alterations had been made, and the troops which had marched were peaceably engaged in completing the annual reliefs according ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846 • Various

... looked toward offspring who should possess high scientific gifts. With this mind he set out on his courting, and steering clear of vain entanglements with rather preternatural coolness, at last in a remote village, satisfied himself that he had found his complement. He permitted his docile heart to fall in love, and in due course there was born into the world a great man. The wooing has a humorous aspect,—this steering of unruly Hymen! The calculated result, however, did not fail of appearance, and perhaps the world might ...
— The Last Leaf - Observations, during Seventy-Five Years, of Men and Events in America - and Europe • James Kendall Hosmer

... while the Allied reinforcements were still on the further side of the Alps. If only Lloyd George and Bissolati had had their way, and these reinforcements had been sent a few months earlier, if only we had been able to put a British Army Corps, with its full complement of aircraft, guns and shells, against the Hermada, if only we had had half a dozen tanks to send down the Vippacco Valley, what a different story there would ...
— With British Guns in Italy - A Tribute to Italian Achievement • Hugh Dalton

... that the merchants, who had embarked on this adventure, were obliged to do duty as common sailors; and there died in all, at sea, and on shore at Soldania (a place of refreshment on this side the Cape of Good Hope) one hundred and five men, which was near a fourth part of their complement. And hath not Sir Richard Hawkins, an intelligent as well as brave officer, who lived in that age, recorded, that in twenty years, during which be had used the sea, be could give an account of ten thousand mariners ...
— A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World Volume 2 • James Cook

... about on Mrs. Picture's return. The sofy should be stood back against the wall, for dolly to be put to sleep on. And Queen Victoria she should go up on one nail, and Prince Halbert on the other. These were beautiful coloured prints, smiling fixedly across a full complement of stars and garters. The red piece of carpet would go down against the fender, and the blue piece near the window, as of yore. Dave looked forward with interest to the resurrection of Mrs. Picture's wroyting ...
— When Ghost Meets Ghost • William Frend De Morgan

... of youth I began to discount my future that very day, ordering a full dress suit, of the best tailor, hat and shoes to match and a complement of neck wear that would have done credit to Beau Brummel. It gave me a start when I saw the bill would empty my pocket of more than half its cash. But I had a stiff pace to follow, and every reason to look ...
— Eben Holden - A Tale of the North Country • Irving Bacheller

... had reached Samos he found the armament in a state of great despondency. Accordingly his first measure was to man seventy ships with their full complement, instead of the former hundred and odd vessels. With this squadron he put to sea accompanied by the other generals, and confined himself to making descents first at one point and then at another of the enemy's territory, and to ...
— Hellenica • Xenophon

... skeleton, which is a mere weight upon the muscles, a part of the burden that, nevertheless, it enables them to bear. The lever of Archimedes would push the planet aside, provided only it were supplied with its indispensable complement, a fulcrum, or fixity: without this it will not push a pin. The block of the pulley must have its permanent attachment; the wheel of the locomotive engine requires beneath it the fixed rail; the foot of the pedestrian, solid earth; the wing of the ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 43, May, 1861 • Various

... little fellows that hold their heads so high would be taken all aback, as the saying is: they would be ashamed to show their colours, d— my eyes! I once lay eight glasses alongside of the Flour de Louse, a French man-of-war, though her mettle was heavier, and her complement larger by a hundred hands than mine. You, Jack Hatchway, d— ye, what d'ye grin at! D'ye think I tell a story, because you never heard ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... king's yard; and, having taken charge from her former commander, proceeded to fit out with surprising diligence. On the 23rd February he received twenty-three seamen from the Preston; and on the 27th a sergeant and eleven marines completed his complement of thirty-seven men, including himself and the carpenter; when he immediately weighed and made sail. It soon after blew a gale, but he succeeded in reaching the Brothers, where he anchored, and found H.M.S. Sphinx, and some ...
— Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I • Sir John Ross



Words linked to "Complement" :   company, vis-a-vis, equilibrize, expression, adjunct, workforce, immune response, equilibrate, enzyme, complementary, full complement, opposite number, hands, count, complement fixation



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