scrupler (skropler)

[ tates. Away with those nice scruplers . A man without truth or humanity may have some strange One who scruples; a doubter; one who hes i- scruples about a trifle. Macaulay , Hallam's Const. Hist. To make scruple, to hesitate; be reluctant on conscien- tious grounds; doubt, or have compunction of conscience. Cæsar, when he went first into Gaul, made no scruple to profe "that he had rather be first in a village than second at Rome." Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 342. Some such thing Cæsar makes scruple of, but forbids it not. B. Jonson, Sejanus, iv. 5. Then said Matthew, I made the scruple because I a while since was sick with eating of fruit. Bunyan , Pilgrim's Progre , p. 305. To stand on scruple, to hesitate on punctilious grounds. I had made up my mind to lift up the latch, and to walk in freely, as I would have done in most other houses, but stood on scruple with Evan Thomas. R. D. Black more, Maid of Sker, vi. scruplel (skröʻpl), v .; pret. and pp. scrupled , ppr. scrupling . [ scruple1 , n.] I. in trans . To have scruples; be reluctant as regards action or de Bp . Hall , Remains, p. 295.