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What is the difference between scruple and qualm?

scruple | qualm |

Qualm is a synonym of scruple.



As nouns the difference between scruple and qualm

is that scruple is a weight of twenty grains; the third part of a dram while qualm is mortality; plague; pestilence.

As a verb scruple

is to be reluctant or to hesitate, as regards an action, on account of considerations of conscience or expedience.

scruple

English

(Webster 1913)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A weight of twenty grains; the third part of a dram.
  • (obsolete) Hence, a very small quantity; a particle.
  • * Ca 1601–1608 , , As You Like It , Act II Scene 3 221–222
  • Paroles: I have not, my lord, deserved it.'' Lafeu: ''Yes, good faith, ev'ry dram of it, and 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 . - .
  • (obsolete) A doubt or uncertainty concerning a matter of fact; intellectual perplexity.
  • A measurement of time. Hebrew culture broke the hour into 1080 scruples.
  • Synonyms

    * (precise weight) * (small amount) see also .

    Derived terms

    * scrupulous * unscrupulous

    Verb

    (scrupl)
  • 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. - .
  • To regard with suspicion; to hesitate at; to question.
  • Others long before them ... scrupled more the books of hereties than of gentiles. - .
  • (obsolete) To doubt; to question; to hesitate to believe; to question the truth of (a fact, etc.).
  • I do not scruple to admit that all the Earth seeth but only half of the Moon.
  • To excite scruples in; to cause to scruple.
  • Letters which did still scruple many of them. -E. Symmons.

    Anagrams

    *

    qualm

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l) (dialectal)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Mortality; plague; pestilence.
  • A calamity or disaster.
  • A feeling of apprehension, doubt, fear etc.
  • :* {{quote-web
  • , date=2012-08-25 , year= , first= , last= , author=Andy Pasztor , authorlink= , title=Armstrong, First Man on Moon, Dies , site=Wall Street Journal citation , archiveorg= , accessdate=2012-08-26 , passage=Opponents of those privatization plans hoped to use Mr. Armstrong's qualms as ammunition to block the White House initiatives, and they asked for more public statements. }}
  • A sudden sickly feeling; queasiness.
  • A prick of the conscience; a moral scruple, a pang of guilt. (Now chiefly in negative constructions.)
  • Synonyms

    * compunction * misgiving * scruple

    Derived terms

    * qualmish * qualmishly * qualmishness * qualmy