Complacent means so satisfied with yourself that you stop trying. Grow complacent, complacent about safety, a complacent attitude.
It is always a criticism and the danger it names is real: complacency about risk is the standard finding in accident inquiries, where things had gone well for long enough that nobody checked. Note complaisant, a different word meaning eager to please — the two are confused constantly and mean nearly opposite things.
1adjectivecomplacentSo satisfied with yourself that you stop trying.
“After three wins in a row, the team became complacent and lost to the weakest side.”
synonyms: smug, self-satisfied
complacent is a quality of self-satisfaction.
Also accepted in games: smug
Latin complacens means very pleasing, from com plus placere, to please. Please, placid and complaisant come from the same pleasing.
Latin
complacēns — very pleasing
English, today
complacent
Built from
Borrowed from Latin complacēns (“very pleasing”), present participle of complacēre (“to please at the same time, be very pleasing”), from com- (“together”) + placēre (“to please”); see please and compare complaisant.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA