complier
(kəmˈplaɪə(r))
Also 7–8 -plyer.
[f. comply v. + -er1.]
† 1. One who agrees with another; an accomplice. Obs.
| 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 9 (1619) 200 Speaking in effect the language of Corah, and his compliers. 1649 Bounds Publ. Obed. (ed. 2) 33 He supposes the usurper and the complyers to be brought to account. |
b. One who complaisantly connives.
| 1670 Baxter Cure Ch. Div. Pref. iii. §4 And that being lukewarm myselfe and a complyer with sin. 1680 ― Cath. Commun. §1 (1684) 1 Censuring Us as mistaking compliers with Sin. |
2. One who complies with, or accommodates his conduct to (any humour, fashion, etc.); one who acts in conformity with the wishes of another.
| 1660 Gt. & Bloody Plot 5 One Sir Thomas Martin, Knight of Cambridgeshire, a great complier with the times. 1667 T. Tomkins Inconven. Toleration 26 Formalists, Time⁓servers, compliers with that which is uppermost. 1669 Clarendon Tracts (1727) 123 Great men..whose counsellors are commonly compliers with their humours. 1685 H. More An Illustration 198 These compliers with the Mass. a 1720 Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.) Wks. (1753) I. 179 One whom tame fools miscal a mod'rate man; That is, a mean complyer with the times. 1727 Swift Gulliver ii. vi. 150. |
† b. spec. One who conforms to the political or religious fashion of the time; a conformist. Often used opprobriously. Obs.
| 1644 Bp. Maxwell Prerog. Chr. Kings iii. 38 That he might not be judged a time-server, a temporizer, a complier. 1698 Strype Life Sir T. Smith xviii. (1820) 176 In the changes of religion he was a complier. 1705 Hearne Collect. 21 Apr. I. 231 Another smooth-booted Complyer. 1711 Ibid. III. 250 The Complyers are all angry that the excellencies of these Men [the Nonjurors] should be so much as mention'd. 1758 Jortin Erasmus I. 393 Mr. Strype says he was a complier in the reign of King Edward, but was not well affected to the Reformation. |