SCRUPLES • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Scruples

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/skrˈupəlz/ Listen

Scruples

noun

Motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions. Synonyms: conscience, moral sense, sense of right and wrong.

Scruple

noun

A unit of apothecary weight equal to 20 grains.

Uneasiness about the fitness of an action. Synonyms: misgiving, qualm.

An ethical or moral principle that inhibits action.

verb

(past & past part. scrupled; pres. part. scrupling)

Hesitate on moral grounds.

Raise scruples.

Have doubts about.

See images of 'Scruples'

Etymology of 'Scruples'

Share |

"Scruples" Quotes from Famous Books

... places his hand on the formless block, to give it a form according to his intention, he has not any scruples in doing violence to it. For the nature on which he works does not deserve any respect in itself, and he does not value the whole for its parts, but the parts on account of the whole. When the child ...

— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... so," Lord Roos said; "for I esteem thee for thy rare qualities. I know not thy peer for cunning and knavery. Thy mischievous schemes are so well-conceived that they prove thee to have an absolute genius for villany. Scruples thou hast none; and considerations and feelings which might move men less obdurate than thyself, have no influence over thee. To ruin a man is with thee mere pastime; and groans of the oppressed are ...

— The Star-Chamber, Volume 1 - An Historical Romance • W. Harrison Ainsworth

... of soup, followed by a savory roast of meat, with mashed potatoes and lentils. Afterward, cheese and beer. I was slightly discomfited physically on learning that the beef was horse-meat, but Drew convinced me that it was absurd to let old scruples militate against a healthy appetite. In 1870 the citizens of France ate ragout de chat with relish. Furthermore, the roast was of so delicious a flavor and so closely resembled the finest cuts of beef, that it was easy to persuade one's self ...

— High Adventure - A Narrative of Air Fighting in France • James Norman Hall

... hope you don't really think so, Lady Mary," cried Sylla; "but you cannot half act a thing. When the exigencies of the stage require one to be embraced, one must admit of that ceremony. Surely if a girl has scruples about going through such a mere form, she had much better decline to ...

— Belles and Ringers • Hawley Smart

... Government has swept aside under the plea of retaliation and necessity and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea except these which it is impossible to employ as it is employing them without throwing to the winds all scruples of humanity or of respect for the understandings that were supposed to underlie the intercourse of the world. I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the ...

— History of the World War - An Authentic Narrative of the World's Greatest War • Francis A. March and Richard J. Beamish

More quotes...