c1386 G. Chaucer Merchant's Tale 649 The fourthe day compleet fro noon to noon.

c1386 G. Chaucer Nun's Pr. T. 369 Whan þat the Monthe..That highte March..Was compleet.

a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. xvi. f. ix By y^e tyme or space of v. yeres complete.

1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida iv. i. 28 Ioue let Æneas liue..A thousand compleate courses of the Sunne. View more context for this quotation

1701 J. Evelyn Diary (1955) V. 480 I was this day 81 years old Compleate.

1731 A. Pope Epist. to Earl of Burlington 8 Behold Villario's ten-years Toil compleat.

1879 J. N. Lockyer Elem. Lessons Astron. (new ed.) 319 The Moon's nodes perform a complete revolution in nineteen years.

1645 Ord. Lords & Com., Susp. fr. Sacram. 1 Sincerely to endeavour the compleat establishment of Purity and Unity.

1663 B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 19 A man of compleat stature.

1727 D. Defoe Syst. Magick i. iv. 117 The greatest and best Principles are often illustrated..,by their compleatest Contraries.

1853 E. K. Kane U.S. Grinnell Exped. (1856) xxx. 258 Next came the complete inabiity to obtain drink without manufacturing it.

1854 E. Ronalds & T. Richardson Knapp's Chem. Technol. I. 199 One pound of peat requires for complete combustion..from 70 to 134 cubic feet of air.

1873 J. Bryce Holy Rom. Empire (ed. 4) 443 The triumph of the principle..is complete.

c1380 J. Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 362 Men shulden bi hooli lif of Crist trowe þat his lawe is compleet.

1590 C. Marlowe Tamburlaine: 2nd Pt. sig. F8 If thou exceed they elder Brothers worth, And shine in compleat vertue more than they.

1673 J. Ray Observ. Journey Low-countries 325 The church of S. Maria Florida, which in some mens opinion is the compleatest structure that ever was set upon the earth.

1781 S. Johnson Pope in Pref. Wks. Eng. Poets VII. 236 The praise had been compleat, had his friend's virtue been equal to his wit.

1878 J. P. Hopps Rel. & Moral Lect. iv. 16 Everything which trains and educates is leading on to that completer kind of life.

1567 J. Conway in G. Fenton tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. To Rdrs. sig. *vii A tongue compleate with spyte.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona (1623) ii. iv. 71.

1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall iii. 42 The folly of our Fore-fathers, wherein..this Island was so compleat.

1703 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion II. viii. 371 That neither of them should move upon any Action till they should be both complete in greater Numbers, than either of them had yet marched with.

1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 108 The age has not yet the compleat benefit. View more context for this quotation

c1374 G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde v. 828 Troylus wel woxen was in heighte, And complet formed by proporcioun.

1581 Compendious Exam. Certayne Ordinary Complaints i. f. 8^v Taughte more perfectly and more compleat.

1616 G. Chapman tr. Homer Iliad vi, in Whole Wks. Homer 92 All in fire, he burnd him compleat arm'd.

1837–40 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker (1862) 137 They all know me to be an American citizen here, by my talk, for we speak it complete in New England.

1904 Webster's Guide on Fertilizers (A. G. Webster & Son, Hobart, Tasmania) 1 We are pleased to state that our sales of Fertilizers show a considerable increase, especially in Mixed Complete Fertilizers.

1953 H. L. Edlin Forester's Handbk. xix. 322 Compound commercial fertilizers, which include balanced amounts of the three major nutrients, namely nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium..are similar to the ‘complete fertilizers’ used in agricultural practice.

1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 8 Mar. 105/3 The first spring dressing is nitrogen, followed by a complete, with a nitrogen top dressing after nearly every grazing over, and a second application of complete in August.

1785 T. Martyn tr. J.-J. Rousseau Lett. Elements Bot. ix. 92 The first thing you have to see is, whether the flowers are complete or perfect, that is, have both stamens and pistils.

1807 J. E. Smith Introd. Physiol. & Systematical Bot. 306 A flower furnished with both calyx and corolla is called flos completus, a complete flower.

1857 A. Henfrey Elem. Course Bot. 88 A flower presenting all the [four] whorls is called complete.

1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. III. xxxi. 239 The pupæ of this sub~division [Arachnida] were named by Linné Complete from their near resemblance to the imago.

1847 W. B. Carpenter Zool.: Systematic Acct. II. §626 As an example of complete metamorphosis..taking the Bombyx mori..the silkworm.

1961 Jrnl. Assoc. Computing Machinery 8 282 We derive first an upper bound for R when a general matrix is reduced to triangular form by Gaussian elimination, selecting as pivotal element at each stage the element of maximum modulus in the whole of the remaining square matrix. We refer to this as ‘complete’ pivoting for size, in contrast to the selection of the maximum element in the leading column at each stage, which we call ‘partial’ pivoting for size.

1890 Cent. Dict. at Polygon Complete polygon.

1859 G. Boole Treat. Differential Equations i. 8 The relation among the variables which constitutes the general solution of a differential equation..is also termed its complete primitive.

1920 H. T. H. Piaggio Elem. Treat. Differential Equations vii. 88 An elegant but somewhat artificial method for finding the complete primitive of a linear equation whose complementary function is known.

1957 L. Fox Numerical Solution Two-point Boundary Probl. i. 3 By definition, a numerical solution contains no arbitrary constants, so that we always obtain particular integrals rather than complete primitives.

1934 C. C. Krieger tr. Sierpiński Introd. Gen. Topol. vii. 120 Fréchet calls a space complete when a metric can be established for it such that Cauchy's Theorem is true.

1946 Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 60 529 A topological linear space, being a topological group, has a natural uniform structure... Hence one may speak of..whether or not it is complete.

1964 A. P. Robertson & W. Robertson Topological Vector Spaces iii. 63 If S is a separated compact or locally compact space, the space (S), under the topology of compact convergence..,is complete.

1935 Compositio Mathematica II. 466 If the number of points is N≧m(k,l) then there exists in our graph a complete graph of order l.

1935 Compositio Mathematica II. 466 [Note]. A complete graph is one in which every pair of points is connected.

1972 R. J. Wilson Introd. Graph Theory ii. 16 The complete graph on n vertices is usually denoted by K_n... The reader should check that K_n has exactly ½n(n-1) edges.

1980 Sci. Amer. Mar. 18/2 No matter how the arrowheads are placed on a complete digraph, there will always be a directed path that visits each point just once.

1989 VNR Conc. Encycl. Math. (ed. 2) xxxvi. 689 A complete graph is connected.

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 491/2 I complete, I fulfyll. Jaccomplis. Who shall complete this worke nowe he is deed?

1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 492/1 I complete, I fynisshe or performe a thyng.

1646 Record's Ground of Arts (new ed.) Pref. 9 All which..I have almost compleated to be exhibited to your Highnesse.

1684 R. Waller tr. Ess. Nat. Exper. Acad. del Cimento 56 We..compleated the filling of the Cane to A, and tyed it over fast with a Bladder.

1751 C. Labelye Descr. Westm. Bridge 108 In Case I should be prevented by Death, from compleating this Work.

1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People vii. §6. 407 After completing the circuit of the globe.

1680 T. Otway Orphan ii. 19 Honourable Vows, Which he this day appointed to compleat.

1735 A. Pope Of Use of Riches (rev. ed.) in Ethic Epist. 77 To town he comes, compleats the nation's hope.

1814 W. Wordsworth Excursion ix. 405 Your Country must complete Her glorious destiny. View more context for this quotation

1794 F. W. Sanders J. T. Atkyns's Rep. Cases in Chancery (ed. 3) I. 12/2 The purchase was to be completed on or before the 25th of March, 1793.

1805 E. B. Sugden Law of Vendors & Purchasers of Estates viii. 185 The purchaser was then out of town, and on his return.., wrote, insisting that he would not complete.

1893 Times Law Rep. 10 76/2 The purchase was to be completed on January 1, 1887. If not then completed the purchaser was to pay to the vendor interest on the residue of the purchase money..until completion.

1957 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 804/1 This is executed by the vendor and delivered to his solicitor in escrow (i.e., on condition that it is not to be effective unless the transaction is duly completed).

1971 Reader's Digest Family Guide Law ix. 80/1 If the seller's solicitor suspects..that the buyer is unlikely to complete unless he is forced to, he can serve a ‘notice to complete’ on the buyer.

1987 Daily Tel. 23 Sept. 16/6 Purchasers..are bound to the extent of forfeiture of their deposit if they fail to complete.