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. Ibid. (1680), Cath. Commun., § 1 (1684), 1. Censuring Us as mistaking compliers with Sin.
2. One who complies with, or accommodates his conduct to (any humor, 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 April, I. 231. Another smooth-booted Complyer. Ibid. (1711), 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.
