COMPLAINT, n.
1. Expression of grief, regret, pain, censure, or resentment lamentation murmuring a finding fault.
Even to day is my complaint bitter. Job 23 .
2. The cause or subject of complaint, or murmuring.
The poverty of the clergy hath been the complaint of all who wish well to the church.
3. The cause of complaint, or of pain and uneasiness in the body a malady a disease usually applied to disorders not violent as a complaint in the bowels or breast.
4. Accusation a charge against an offender, made by a private person or informer to a justice of the peace or other proper officer, alleging that the offender has violated the law, and claiming the penalty due to the prosecutor. It differs from an information, which is the prosecution of an offender by the Attorney or Solicitor General and from a presentment and indictment, which are the accusation of a Grand Jury.
5. Representation of injuries, in a general sense and appropriately, in a writ of Audita Querela.