SCRUPLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Scruple

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/skrˈupəl/ Listen

noun

Scruple n.

A weight of twenty grains; the third part of a dram.

Hence, a very small quantity; a particle. "I will not bate thee a scruple."

Hesitation as to action from the difficulty of determining what is right or expedient; unwillingness, doubt, or hesitation proceeding from motives of conscience. "He was made miserable by the conflict between his tastes and his scruples."

To make scruple, to hesitate from conscientious motives; to scruple.

verb

Scruple v. t.

To regard with suspicion; to hesitate at; to question. "Others long before them... scrupled more the books of heretics than of gentiles."

To excite scruples in; to cause to scruple. (R.) "Letters which did still scruple many of them."

Scruple v. i. (past & past part. scrupled; pres. part. scrupling) To be reluctant or to hesitate, as regards an action, on account of considerations of conscience or expedience. "We are often over-precise, scrupling to say or do those things which lawfully we may." "Men scruple at the lawfulness of a set form of divine worship."

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Etymology of 'Scruple'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Scruple" Quotes from Famous Books

... that my self- entertainment was not without its element of danger, too: I remember glances not altogether friendly but always a little doubtful, a little awed. Even Handy Solomon, practical as he was, had a scruple or two of superstition in his make-up, on which one might work. Only Eagen—Slade, I mean—was beyond me there. You puzzled me not a little ...

— The Mystery • Stewart Edward White and Samuel Hopkins Adams

... say he could not be angry with others for seeing him in a light, in which he so strongly saw himself: So that to his friends, who knew his foible was not the love of money, and who therefore made the less scruple in bantering the extravagance of his humour,—instead of giving the true cause,—he chose rather to join in the laugh against himself; and as he never carried one single ounce of flesh upon his own bones, being altogether as spare a figure as his beast,—he would sometimes insist upon ...

— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne

... York and back without danger of being caught, and I explained the plan I had worked out by which it could be done. (I will not explain what the plan was, lest some other foolish boy try it.) I was promptly challenged to undertake it for a high wager, and that challenge overcame any scruple I may have had. I cared nothing for a brief visit to New York, and had only five dollars in my pocket which Jerome N. Bonaparte loaned me to pay my way. But I went to the city and back, in perfect safety, between the two roll- calls I had to attend that day. Old Benny Havens ...

— Forty-Six Years in the Army • John M. Schofield

... Testament has no scruple in calling men 'saints' who had many sins, and none in calling men perfect who had many imperfections; and it does so, not because it has any fantastic theory about religious emotions being the measure ...

— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... Miss Pilgrim included, telling them that he had invited them to look at his conchological cabinet, unless he instantly shook the ice out of his manner and accompanied me down stairs. This dreadful menace had the desired effect. He knew that I would not scruple to fulfil it; and at the same time that it made him surrender, it also provoked him with me to a degree which gave his eyes and cheeks as fine a glow as I could have wished for the purpose of a favorable impression. The stimulus of wrath was good for him, and there was little tremor in ...

— Humorous Masterpieces from American Literature • Various

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