complied; complying
1
: to conform, submit, or adapt (as to a regulation or to another's wishes) as required or requested
comply with federal law
the devices comply with industry standards
2
obsolete
: to be ceremoniously courteous
Synonyms
Examples of comply in a Sentence
I asked the waitress to refill my coffee cup and she happily complied.
There will be penalties against individuals who fail to comply.
Recent Examples on the Web
This was the lesson of Brown v. Board of Education, where federal troops had to escort Black children into schools because local authorities refused to comply.
—
Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 17 Feb. 2025
What is included in the waste of public money are $174,000 the district was required to pay the family’s attorney (which would have been zero had the district complied with the family’s initial request) and more than $251,000 paid to the law firm the district hired to fight the family.
—Marsha Sutton, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Feb. 2025
Two top-tier prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and five officials in the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section opted to abruptly leave their jobs in the span of about 24 hours instead of complying with acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s order to drop Adams’s charges.
—Ashley Oliver, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 15 Feb. 2025
Separately Monday, President Trump fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the official tasked with ensuring government workers comply with conflict of interest and ethics requirements.
—Abc News, ABC News, 14 Feb. 2025
See all Example Sentences for comply 
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Josh Hammer, Newsweek, 17 Feb. 2025
What is included in the waste of public money are $174,000 the district was required to pay the family’s attorney (which would have been zero had the district complied with the family’s initial request) and more than $251,000 paid to the law firm the district hired to fight the family.
—Marsha Sutton, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Feb. 2025
Two top-tier prosecutors in the Southern District of New York and five officials in the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section opted to abruptly leave their jobs in the span of about 24 hours instead of complying with acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s order to drop Adams’s charges.
—Ashley Oliver, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 15 Feb. 2025
Separately Monday, President Trump fired the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the official tasked with ensuring government workers comply with conflict of interest and ethics requirements.
—Abc News, ABC News, 14 Feb. 2025
See all Example Sentences for comply
Dictionary Entries Near comply
Cite this Entry
“Comply.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comply. Accessed 20 Feb. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
comply
verb
com·ply
kəm-ˈplī 
complied; complying
: to act in agreement with another's wishes or in obedience to a rule
comply with a request
complier
noun
-ˈplī(-ə)r
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share