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Compunction vs Guilty - What's the difference?

compunction | guilty |

As nouns the difference between compunction and guilty

is that compunction is a pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting while guilty is (legal) a plea by a defendant who does not contest a charge.

As an adjective guilty is

responsible for a dishonest act.

compunction

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.
  • * :
    • [H]e would have had no compunction whatever in flinging him out of the highest window in Venice into the deepest water of the city.
  • * 1897 , , Dracula , ch. 3:
    • I felt no compunction in doing so, for under the circumstances I felt that I should protect myself in every way I could.
  • * 1920 , , Women in Love , ch. 8:
    • But he felt, later, a little compunction . He had been violent, cruel with poor Hermione. He wanted to recompense her, to make it up.
  • * 2003 February 16, Blaine Greteman, " No Peace Dividend," Time :
    • As for average U.S. consumers, they've shown little compunction about buying diamonds that fund bloody militias in Africa.

    Synonyms

    * regret, remorse, qualm * See also

    See also

    * contrition * penitence, penance * guilt

    guilty

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Responsible for a dishonest act.
  • :
  • (lb) Judged to have committed a crime.
  • :
  • Having a sense of guilt.
  • :
  • *
    • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.}}
  • Blameworthy.
  • :
  • *
  • *:At twilight in the summereat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly—the only lavishment of which he was ever guilty —on the floor.

    • Synonyms

    * (l) * (l) (dialectal)

    Antonyms

    * not guilty * innocent

    Related terms

    * guilty as sin

    Noun

    (guilties)
  • (legal) A plea by a defendant who does not contest a charge.
  • (legal) A verdict of a judge or jury on a defendant judged to have committed a crime.
  • One who is declared guilty of a crime.
  • * {{quote-book, 1997, , Everyone Is Entitled to My Opinion citation
    • , passage=The not guilties walked out and went to work if they had jobs; the guilties were hauled away to spend maybe thirty days on the county farm growing cabbage.}}