COMPUNCTION • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Compunction

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/kəmpˈəŋkʃən/ Listen

noun

Compunction n.

A pricking; stimulation. (Obs.) "That acid and piercing spirit which, with such activity and compunction, invadeth the brains and nostrils."

A picking of heart; poignant grief proceeding from a sense of guilt or consciousness of causing pain; the sting of conscience. "He acknowledged his disloyalty to the king, with expressions of great compunction."

Synonyms: Compunction, Remorse, Contrition. Remorse is anguish of soul under a sense of guilt or consciousness of having offended God or brought evil upon one's self or others. Compunction is the pain occasioned by a wounded and awakened conscience. Neither of them implies true contrition, which denotes self-condemnation, humiliation, and repentance. We speak of the gnawings of remorse; of compunction for a specific act of transgression; of deep contrition in view of our past lives. See Regret.

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Etymology of 'Compunction'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Compunction" Quotes from Famous Books

... shrubberies and meet the gentlemen as they return from shooting," Colonel Damer being one of the shooting party. But Mrs. Damer had declined the drive, and made her cousin understand so plainly that she preferred being left alone, that Mrs. Clayton felt no compunction in acceding to her wishes, and laying herself out to please the other ladies ...

— Masterpieces of Mystery - Riddle Stories • Various

... Compunction visited the face before him. 'I didn't mean to say I didn't love it at all. It's like those people you care to be with for a little while, but if you must go being with them for ever ...

— The Convert • Elizabeth Robins

... this book was written while Sir John Hawkins was alive; and I avow, that one object of my strictures was to make him feel some compunction for his illiberal treatment of Dr. Johnson. Since his decease, I have suppressed several of my remarks upon his work. But though I would not 'war with the dead' offensively, I think it necessary to be strenuous in defence of my illustrious friend, which I ...

— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill

... land they are anxious of annexing to their own—and in the doing of the deed to save their own necks. If they succeed, they are accounted clever men. As I write, I hear of a man, quite a youngster, himself an exceedingly wealthy man, who killed his brother and confiscated his property with no compunction whatever. When tackled on the subject, he said he could do nothing else, for if he had not killed his brother his brother ...

— Across China on Foot • Edwin Dingle

... sort, in a region of no roads, or bad roads, of rivers perpetually in flood, turning the lanes into water-courses for three-fourths of the year, of miry fields and marshy heaths, she procured for herself a suit of boy's clothes, donning blouse and gaiters now and then without compunction for these rough country walks ...

— Famous Women: George Sand • Bertha Thomas

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