scruple

[ skroo-puhl ]
See synonyms for: scruplescruples on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a moral or ethical consideration or standard that acts as a restraining force or inhibits certain actions.

  2. a very small portion or amount.

  1. a unit of weight equal to 20 grains (1.295 grams) or 1/3 of a dram, apothecaries' weight.

  2. an ancient Roman unit of weight equivalent to 1/24 of an ounce or 1/288 of an as or pound.: Compare as2 (def. 2).

verb (used without object),scru·pled, scru·pling.
  1. to have scruples.

verb (used with object),scru·pled, scru·pling.
  1. to have scruples about; hesitate at.

Origin of scruple

1
1350–1400; (<French scrupule) <Latin scrūpulus unit of weight, worry, precaution equivalent to scrūp(us) rough pebble + -ulus-ule; replacing earlier scriple,Middle English <Latin scrīpulum (variant scriptulum) small weight, pebble, alteration of scrūpulus by association with scrīptum writing (see script; for sense relation cf. gram1)

Other words for scruple

Other words from scruple

  • scru·ple·less, adjective
  • o·ver·scru·ple, verb, o·ver·scru·pled, o·ver·scru·pling.
  • un·scru·pled, adjective

Words Nearby scruple

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use scruple in a sentence

  • Kane is an incredibly wealthy man, a newspaper baron with few scruples about journalism who attains immense power, only to see it start to fade near the end of his life.

  • It wasn't any scruple of mercy, for Hicks was as cold-blooded a brute as ever glanced down a gun-barrel.

    Raw Gold | Bertrand W. Sinclair
  • Here, you,” he growled, “was aught said to thee whereby thou hast a scruple to tell me how many guns defend the Cashmere Gate?

    The Red Year | Louis Tracy
  • If he sometimes come across a precept which is perfectly clear and irrefutable, Donald does not scruple to ignore it.

    Friend Mac Donald | Max O'Rell
  • Little Larkins had told all, and his father had no scruple in repeating it, and causing the investigation to be set on foot.

    The Daisy Chain | Charlotte Yonge

British Dictionary definitions for scruple

scruple

/ (ˈskruːpəl) /


noun
  1. (often plural) a doubt or hesitation as to what is morally right in a certain situation

  2. archaic a very small amount

  1. a unit of weight equal to 20 grains (1.296 grams)

  2. an ancient Roman unit of weight equivalent to approximately one twenty-fourth of an ounce

verb
  1. (obsolete when tr) to have doubts (about), esp for a moral reason

Origin of scruple

1
C16: from Latin scrūpulus a small weight, from scrūpus rough stone

Derived forms of scruple

  • scrupleless, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012