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complexion

noun
/kəmˈplɛkʃən/US

Etymology

From Middle English complexion (“temperament”), from Old French complexion (French complexion), from Medieval Latin complexiō (“complexion, constitution”), from complector, past participle complexus (“to entwine, encompass”).

  1. derived from complexiō
  2. derived from complexion
  3. inherited from complexion

Definitions

  1. The quality, colour, or appearance of the skin on the face.

    • a rugged complexion
    • a sunburnt complexion
    • Prince of Morocco: Mislike me not for my complexion, / The shadow’d livery of the burnish’d sun, / To whom I am a neighbour, and near bred. […]

  2. The outward appearance of something.

    • It was a little unfortunate that the fib unfibbed gave their consultations something the complexion of that close understanding which exists between penitent and confessor.

  3. Outlook, attitude, or point of view.

    • That minister was galbet, or admiral of the realm, very much in his master’s confidence, and a person well versed in affairs, but of a morose and sour complexion.
    • But the purely marginal jottings, done with no eye to the Memorandum Book, have a distinct complexion, and not only a distinct purpose, but none at all; this it is which imparts to them a value.
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. The combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament", being either hot…

      The combination of humours making up one's physiological "temperament", being either hot or cold, and moist or dry.

      • Ne ever is he wont on ought to feed / But todes and frogs, his pasture poysonous, / Which in his cold complexion doe breed / A filthy blood […]

    2. An arrangement.

    3. To give a colour to.

      • From the pale refinement of her genteel heroine to the sallow complexioning of poor white trash, Stowe colors her narrative with the hues of the body.

The neighborhood

Derived

complexionary, complexionless, discomplexion

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for complexion. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA