SCRUPLES

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scruples mean? 

• SCRUPLES (noun)
  The noun SCRUPLES has 1 sense:

1. motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions

  Familiarity information: SCRUPLES used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCRUPLES (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting goals

Synonyms:

conscience; moral sense; scruples; sense of right and wrong

Hypernyms ("scruples" is a kind of...):

ethical motive; ethics; morality; morals (motivation based on ideas of right and wrong)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "scruples"):

superego ((psychoanalysis) that part of the unconscious mind that acts as a conscience)

small voice; voice of conscience; wee small voice (an inner voice that judges your behavior)

sense of duty; sense of shame (a motivating awareness of ethical responsibility)

 Context examples 

I have no fears and no scruples.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“Do you know, Watson,” said Holmes as we sat together in the gathering darkness, “I have really some scruples as to taking you to-night. There is a distinct element of danger.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Yet I had my scruples about leaving Holmes.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have no such scruples, and I am sure I could put up with every unpleasantness of that kind with very little effort.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The non-SI unit of mass equal to 60 grains, 3 scruples, 1/8 troy ounce, or approximately 3.8879 grams.

(Apothecaries Dram Mass Unit, NCI Thesaurus)

He should have respected even unreasonable scruples, had there been such; but hers were all reasonable.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Why, indeed; he does seem to have had some filial scruples on that head, as you will hear.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Why then should he, a mere clerk, have scruples when so fair a chance lay in his way of carrying out the spirit as well as the letter of his father's provision.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To say the truth, I had conceived a few scruples with relation to the distributive justice of princes upon those occasions.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The Harvilles silenced all scruples; and, as much as they could, all gratitude.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)