scruple
a moral or ethical consideration or standard that acts as a restraining force or inhibits certain actions.
a very small portion or amount.
a unit of weight equal to 20 grains (1.295 grams) or 1/3 of a dram, apothecaries' weight.
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).
to have scruples.
to have scruples about; hesitate at.
Origin of scruple
1Other 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.
The tangled history behind David Fincher’s Mank — and its link to Citizen Kane — explained | Alissa Wilkinson | December 4, 2020 | VoxIt 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. SinclairHere, 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 TracyIf he sometimes come across a precept which is perfectly clear and irrefutable, Donald does not scruple to ignore it.
Friend Mac Donald | Max O'RellLittle 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
He appropriated it without scruple, and was soon joined by a troop of travelers bound for Marhala.
The Pilgrim's Shell or Fergan the Quarryman | Eugne Sue
British Dictionary definitions for scruple
/ (ˈskruːpəl) /
(often plural) a doubt or hesitation as to what is morally right in a certain situation
archaic a very small amount
a unit of weight equal to 20 grains (1.296 grams)
an ancient Roman unit of weight equivalent to approximately one twenty-fourth of an ounce
(obsolete when tr) to have doubts (about), esp for a moral reason
Origin of scruple
1Derived 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
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