| Definitions | | scruple |
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noun (plural: scruples)
- A weight of twenty grains; the third part of a dram.
- Hence, a very small quantity; a particle.
- I will not bate thee a . Shak.
- Hesitation as to action from the difficulty of determining what is right or expedient; unwillingness, doubt, or hesitation proceeding from motives of conscience; to consider if something is ethical.
- He was made miserable by the conflict between his tastes and his scruples. -Macaulay.
verb (scrupl, ing)
- (intransitive) 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. -Fuller.
- Men at the lawfulness of a set form of divine worship. -South.
- To regard with suspicion; to hesitate at; to question.
- Others long before them ... scrupled more the books of hereties than of gentiles. -Milton.
- To excite scruples in; to cause to scruple.
- Letters which did still many of them. -E. Symmons.
Etymology: scrupulus a small sharp or pointed stone, the twenty-fourth part of an ounce, a scruple, uneasiness, doubt, diminutive of scrupus a rough or sharp stone, anxiety, uneasiness; perhaps akin to the chippings of stone, a razor, (Skr.) kshura: confer scrupule.
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