English

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.