scruple2 (skropl)

[ ✔skar, third part of a dram, being ounce in apothe tar, cut: see shear.] 1. A unit of weight, the caries weight, where alone it is now used by English-speaking people: this is 20 grains (= 1.296 grams). With the ancient Romans a scruple was ounce or pound (= 1.137 grams), and thence of anything duodecimally subdivided, as a jugerum or acre, a heredium or lot of land, a sextarius or measure of capacity. The scruple is denoted now, as anciently, by the character 9. Wrynge oute the myrte and clense it; put therein A scriple of foil and half a scriple of fyn Saffron. Palladius , Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 59. IMG:content-0398.png:[blocks in formation] crunching noise. [Colloq.] We boys clapped our hands and shouted, "Hurrah for old Heber!" as his load of magnificent oak, well-bearded with gray mo , came scrunching into the yard. H. B. Stowe , Oldtown, p. 480. scrunch (skrunch), n. [ At each step there is a scrunch of human bones. = It. scrupolo , scrupulo = D. scrupel Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XLIII. 627. scruple1 (skrö'pl), n. [ scruple , scrupule , F. scrupule = Sp. escrúpulo = Pg. escrupulo , escrupolo = G. Dan. Sw.skrupel , a scruple of conscience, in OF. and Olt. also lit. a sharp stone, scru pulus , uneasine of mind, trouble, anxiety, doubt, scruple, lit. a small rough or sharp stone (so only in a LL. grammarian), dim. of scru pus , a rough or sharp stone, also fig. anxiety, doubt, scruple; cf. Gr. σκύρος , chippings of stone, ξυρόν , a razor, = Skt. kshura , a razor. Cf. scruple2.] Perplexity, trouble, or uneasine of conscience; hesitation or reluctance in acting, arising from inability to satisfy conscience, or from the difficulty of determining what is right or expedient; doubt; backwardne in deciding or acting. Among est Christians there is no warre so iustified but in the same remayneth some scruple. Guevara, Letters (tr. by Hellowes, 1577), p. 67. I have only err'd, but not With the least scruple of thy faith and honour To me. Shirley , Traitor, i. 1. a minute the expre ions first , second , and third scruple tion of the hand, to all and sundry his acquaintances, rich being used for the first, second, and third power of one Hawthorne , Seven Gables, xv. sixtieth. IMG:content-0399.png:[blocks in formation] Scruples of emergence. Same as scruples of incidence, except that it refers to the end of an eclipse, not the beginning. Scruples of half duration, the arc of the moon's path from the beginning to the middle of an eclipse. The early astronomers also spoke of scrupula moræ dimidiæ, being the same thing for the total phase. -Scruples of incidence, the are of the moon's path from its beginning to enter the earth's umbra to its being completely within it.