SCRUPULOUS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does scrupulous mean? 

• SCRUPULOUS (adjective)
  The adjective SCRUPULOUS has 2 senses:

1. having scruples; arising from a sense of right and wrong; principled

2. characterized by extreme care and great effort

  Familiarity information: SCRUPULOUS used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCRUPULOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having scruples; arising from a sense of right and wrong; principled

Context example:

less scrupulous producers sent bundles that were deceptive in appearance

Similar:

religious (extremely scrupulous and conscientious)

Also:

principled (based on or manifesting objectively defined standards of rightness or morality)

Antonym:

unscrupulous (without scruples or principles)

Derivation:

scruple (an ethical or moral principle that inhibits action)

scruple (uneasiness about the fitness of an action)

scrupulousness (conformity to high standards of ethics or excellence)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characterized by extreme care and great effort

Synonyms:

conscientious; painstaking; scrupulous

Context example:

scrupulous attention to details

Similar:

careful (exercising caution or showing care or attention)

Derivation:

scrupulousness (strict attention to minute details)

 Context examples 

Oh! she might think the difference between us—the difference in our situations—that she need not be so scrupulous as I might feel necessary.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

If we were not related, it would not signify; but as cousins, she would feel scrupulous as to any proposal of ours.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But Isabella had promised and promised again; and when she promised a thing, she was so scrupulous in performing it!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

“Oh! you are too scrupulous, indeed you are,” cried Emma warmly, and taking her hand.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

And I really believe he HAS the most delicate conscience in the world; the most scrupulous in performing every engagement, however minute, and however it may make against his interest or pleasure.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

But as to counts, marquises, dukes, earls, and the like, I was not so scrupulous.

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

Well, the temptation of sudden wealth so easily acquired was too much for you, as it has been for better men before you; but you were not very scrupulous in the means you used.

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

You are over-scrupulous, surely.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

There was an enjoyment in accepting their simple kindness, and in repaying it by a consideration—a scrupulous regard to their feelings—to which they were not, perhaps, at all times accustomed, and which both charmed and benefited them; because, while it elevated them in their own eyes, it made them emulous to merit the deferential treatment they received.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was not that he looked many years older, though still dressed with the old scrupulous cleanliness; or that there was an unwholesome ruddiness upon his face; or that his eyes were full and bloodshot; or that there was a nervous trembling in his hand, the cause of which I knew, and had for some years seen at work.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)