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Literary notes about compliant (AI summary)

The word "compliant" is employed in literature to depict characters or contexts marked by a readiness to yield or conform, whether in personal relationships or within societal and institutional frameworks. Its usage ranges from portraying a gentle, accommodating nature in interpersonal interactions—as when someone is described as responsive and deferential ([1], [2], [3])—to suggesting a more systemic or technical adherence to rules, such as in regulatory contexts ([4], [5]). At times, the term carries an ironic tone or subtle criticism, hinting at a vulnerability or excessive docility in the face of authority or circumstance ([6], [7]). Overall, "compliant" reflects a multifaceted quality that authors deploy to explore themes of submission, conformity, and sometimes the peril inherent in too readily bending to external forces ([8], [9]).
  1. When I was dressed, I thought I ought to pay my compliments to the compliant mother.
    — from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
  2. Tom's always very compliant to me; I don't think he's so obstinate."
    — from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
  3. Then, to render him compliant, she added: “I am so pleased that you are going to make that excursion!
    — from The Three Cities Trilogy: Lourdes, Complete by Émile Zola
  4. They may want you to buy a new one that is Y2K compliant.
    — from Project Gutenberg Newsletters 1999 Thirteen Letters: December 1998 to December 1999 by Michael Hart
  5. If you are working to 8.3 conventions, all of your images as well as your HTML files should have 8.3-compliant filenames.
    — from The Project Gutenberg FAQ 2002 by Jim Tinsley
  6. Belief in the real change gave her full view of the compliant coward she had been.
    — from Lord Ormont and His Aminta — Complete by George Meredith
  7. Under a compliant exterior, he concealed the subtlety of a diplomatist.
    — from The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the First by Carlo Gozzi
  8. Winter had been compliant and apparently anxious to sell, but there was something puzzling about his partner.
    — from Partners of the Out-Trail by Harold Bindloss
  9. For James clung with a desperate tenacity to the hope of finding a compliant Parliament.
    — from History of the English People, Volume VII The Revolution, 1683-1760; Modern England, 1760-1767 by John Richard Green

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