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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

... the unlawful trade hitherto carried on by the Jews. It is said that the flag of truce boats serve as a medium of negotiations between official dignitaries here and those at Washington; and I have no doubt many of the Federal officers at Washington, for the sake of lucre, make no scruple to participate in the profits of this treasonable traffic. They can beat us at this game: cheat us in bargaining, and excel us in obtaining information as to the number and ...

— A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital • John Beauchamp Jones

... nothing which I would scruple to do—nothing—if by so doing I advanced the glorious cause of our Fatherland." The man's small eyes gleamed with the fire of a fanatic; revolting though he was, yet was there an element of grandeur about him. Even the Kid, watching silently ...

— No Man's Land • H. C. McNeile

... Further consideration of the matter having been delayed for about a month, Mr Craig was again (January 15, 1717) before the Presbytery; was asked by them to sign the answers formerly given by him, and though he "seemed to scruple a little at something of the wording" of some of them, he finally did so, and was licensed. His signature still stands at that date in the Presbytery's copy of the Confession of Faith. The most famous statement signed by him was to the following effect:—"And further, I ...

— Chronicles of Strathearn • Various

... afford to despise pedantry: did he meet a traveller who amused his fancy he would give him the pass-word ('the fiddler's paid,' or what not), as though the highway had not its code of morals; nor did he scruple, when it served his purpose, to rob the bunglers of his own profession. By this means, indeed, he raised the standard of the Road and warned the incompetent to embrace an easier trade. While he never took a shilling without ...

— A Book of Scoundrels • Charles Whibley

... whom he recognised now as being the sultan's most unscrupulous follower, the scoundrel who did any piece of dirty work or atrocity. This was the man who, at his master's wish, dragged away any poor girl from her home to be the sultan's slave; who seized without scruple on gold, tin, rice, or any other produce of the country, in his master's name, and for his use. His hands had been often enough stained with blood, and while wondering at his life being spared so far, Ali had no hesitation in believing that any attempt at escape ...

— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn

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