Other forms: complied, complying, complies
To comply is to do what a rule or order requires. Comply with the regulations, failure to comply, comply fully.
The preposition is with. It is the formal word of regulation and enforcement, and failure to comply is the standard phrase introducing a penalty. Complying is doing what is required rather than agreeing with it, which is what distinguishes it from cooperating. Note compliance, which is now the name of a whole industry and a department in most large firms; and compliant, which of a person means too willing to obey.
1verbcomplyTo do what a rule or order requires.
“All restaurants must comply with strict hygiene rules.”
comply is an obeying.
Also accepted in games: obey
Italian complire, through Spanish cumplir, comes from Latin complere, to fill up or complete. Complying is fulfilling a requirement, and complete and comply are the same verb.
Proto-Indo-European
*pleh₁-
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱóm — beside, near; by, with
Latin
complēre
Old French
compli
Spanish
cumplir — to complete, fulfil
Catalan
complir — to complete, fulfil; to carry out
Italian
complire
English, today
comply
Built from
From Italian complire, Catalan complir (“to complete, fulfil; to carry out”), Spanish cumplir (“to complete, fulfil”), (alternatively from Old French compli), from Latin complēre, from compleō (“to finish, complete; to fulfil”), from com- (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ḱóm (“beside, near; by, with”)) + pleō (“to fill; to fulfil”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The word is very close to the French verb complaire which means to satisfy or to please. The word is also cognate with Old French complir (“to accomplish, complete; to do”) (modern French accomplir (“to accomplish, achieve”)). Compare complete, compliment.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA