SCRUPLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... her, and her own name called in a familiar voice. At that she hurried the faster; but she could not run, and the picket fence was half a block long, and Bob Worthington had an advantage over her. Of course it was Bob, and he did not scruple to run, and in a few seconds he was leaning over the fence in front of her. Now Cynthia was as red as a peony by this time, and she ...

— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... said, as he went to the harpsichord, "when a composition was based upon some old plain song melody, the notes of which could not be altered. Then the musician did not scruple to write in one of the other parts the same note altered by a sharp or flat to suit the passing requirement of the musical phrase allotted to that part. You could thus have together, say an F natural in one part and an F sharp in another. This to modern ...

— Evelyn Innes • George Moore

... lyrics spring appears always intellectually illumined, with its background of scientific corollaries and logical consequences. It is not abandoned to itself, to wreak itself on expression, but is checked by the challenge of doubt or scientific curiosity or moral scruple. His verse thus unites in rare degree the qualities of ...

— French Lyrics • Arthur Graves Canfield

... of brandy, "I suppose you've quite got over that—well, if you'll excuse me saying so—that foolishness about inherited alcoholism and that sort of stuff, and therefore you'll lay all your laurels at the feet of the fair Enid without a scruple? Of course, you remember that juvenile hiding you gave me on the "Orient"? Quite romantic, wasn't it? Well, I must admit that you proved yourself the better boy then, and as you've taken a double first and I have only got a single, you've proved yourself the better ...

— The Missionary • George Griffith

... condition was certainly far from satisfactory. Molly, however, seemed much more taken up with a recent illness of Eliza Countess of Gaverick than with that of Lady Tallant. Being a tactless and absolutely frank young person, she had no scruple in proclaiming her hope that 'old Eliza' would make Lord Gaverick her heir. This was the more likely, wrote young Lady Gaverick, because the old lady had lately quarrelled with her own relatives, and never now asked any of her stuffy provincial cousins to share the dulness of Castle Gaverick ...

— Lady Bridget in the Never-Never Land • Rosa Praed

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