complicit

Back-formation from complicity, most likely, which from French complicité, from complice (“partner, accomplice”), from Latin complex, complicem (“partner”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /kəmˈplɪs.ɪt/

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• Rhymes: -ɪsɪt

complicit (comparative more complicit, superlative most complicit)

1. Associated with or participating in an activity, especially one of a questionable nature.
   • 1861, Henry M. Wheeler, The Slaves' Champion, page 203:

     It [slavery] has set the seal of a complicit, guilty silence upon the most orthodox pulpits and the saintliest tongues, […]

   • 1973, Angus Wilson, As If by Magic, Secker and Warburg, p. 177:

     "I confess," and the Englishman turned with a near complicit grin to Hamo, "I have certain vulgar tastes myself."

   • 2005, Larry Dennsion, "Letters," Time, 7 March:

     Khan's sale of nuclear secrets and a complicit Pakistani government have made the world a ticking time bomb.

• complicitous

• complicitly

• complicity

• “complicit” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.