Com"pline, Com"plin (?), n. [From OE. complie, OF. complie, F. complies, pl., fr. LL. completa (prop. fem. of L. completus) the religious exercise which completes and closes the service of the day. See Complete.] Eccl.

The last division of the Roman Catholic breviary; the seventh and last of the canonical hours of the Western church; the last prayer of the day, to be said after sunset.

The custom of godly man been to shut up the evening with a compline of prayer at nine of the night. Hammond.

 

© Webster 1913.

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