complicate

First attested in the early 17^th century; borrowed from Latin complicātus, perfect passive participle of complicō (“to fold together”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from con- (“together”) + plicō (“to fold, weave, knit”); see plaid, and compare complex. See also Middle English complicate (“involved”).

Verb

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑmplɪkeɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmplɪkeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: com‧pli‧cate

Adjective

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒmplɪkət/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

complicate (third-person singular simple present complicates, present participle complicating, simple past and past participle complicated)

1. (transitive) To make complex; to modify so as to make something intricate or difficult.
   • 1896, Arthur Edward Waite, “Chapter 14”, in Devil-Worship in France, or the Question of Lucifer:

     Let us, however, put aside for the moment the mendacities and forgeries which complicate the question of Lucifer, and let us approach Palladism from an altogether different side.

2. (transitive) To involve in a convoluted matter.

   Don't complicate yourself in issues that are beyond the scope of your understanding.

   John has been complicated in the affair by new tapes that surfaced.

   The DA has made every effort to complicate me in the scandal.

• (involve in a convoluted matter): intricate, entangle, embroil, involve, mix up (in something), mire

• complication
• explicate
• implicate

• complex

complicate (comparative more complicate, superlative most complicate)

1. (obsolete) Intertwined.
2. (now rare, poetic) Complex, complicated.
   • 1745, Edward Young, Night-Thoughts, section I:

     How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, / How complicate, how wonderful, is Man!

• complicate fever
• complicateness (obsolete)
• complicately

• “complicate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E Smith, editors (1911), “complicate”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

complicate

1. feminine plural of complicato

complicate f pl

1. feminine plural of complicato

complicate

1. inflection of complicare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

complicāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of complicō

complicate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of complicar combined with te