misgiving, qualm, scruple overruled, compunction,twinge

The Polish government was initially eager to co-operate in America’s “war on terror”, but later developed qualms about allowing the CIA to torture suspected terrorists on its soil. It was persuaded to continue only at the price of $15m in cash. This “rent-a-dungeon” type of deal has now cost them dearly: Poland has to pay the tortured suspects $262,000 in damages http://econ.st/1EQwMqd

I felt no compunction at persisting opinions that they don't share.

Abortion Qualms on Morning-After Pill May Be Unfounded

By PAM BELLUCK 9:22 PM ET

Some abortion opponents say emergency contraception pills may block fertilized eggs from implanting, but scientists say there is no evidence the pills work that way. 

Obama Won't Apologize to Pakistan Defense Department overrules plan to offer a formal apology for last weekend's fatal NATO airstrikes.

Medicine, like economics, deals with complex systems that are still not well understood; like economics, it has its share of quacks; but unlike economics, medicine has swallowed many of its ethical qualms about running controlled experiments in difficult circumstances.
與經濟學一樣，醫學應對的是人們迄今尚未完全了解的複雜體系；與經濟學一樣，醫學中也存在庸醫的成分；但與經濟學不同的是，醫學忍下了許多對於在困難環境下進行對照實驗的道德疑慮。

That Little Voice Inside Your Twinge

By GINA KOLATA

Everyone tells you to listen to your body, but what are you supposed to listen to? Turns out it's not so obvious.

Misgivings Over French Plans to Rejoin NATO Central Command

Charles de Gaulle pulled France out of NATO’s central command to protest
what he saw as American domination of the alliance over 40 years ago. Now,
President Sarkozy is ready to return.



Though Gail Kern Paster, the director of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, has some misgivings about the rise of Internet slang such as leetspeak, she thinks Shakespeare would applaud it.



As often as he began to consider how to increase this inheritance, or to lay it by, so often his misgiving that there was some one with an unsatisfied claim upon his justice, returned; and that alone was a subject to outlast the longest walk.


scru·ple (skrū'pəl)
n.

1. An uneasy feeling arising from conscience or principle that tends to hinder action. See synonyms at qualm.
2. (Abbr. sc. or scr.) A unit of apothecary weight equal to about 1.3 grams, or 20 grains.
3. A minute part or amount.

intr.v., -pled, -pling, -ples.
To hesitate as a result of conscience or principle: "A man who could make so vile a pun would not scruple to pick a pocket" (John Dennis).

[Middle English scrupul, from Old French scrupule, from Latin scrūpulus, small unit of measurement, scruple, diminutive of scrūpus, rough stone, scruple.]

misgiving Show phonetics
noun [C or U]
a feeling of doubt or worry about a future event:
Many teachers expressed serious misgivings about the new exams.
My only misgiving is that we might not have enough time to do the job properly.
noun

A feeling of uncertainty about the fitness or correctness of an action: compunction, qualm, reservation, scruple. Seecertain/uncertain.

 

 

qualm
n.

1. A sudden feeling of sickness, faintness, or nausea.
2. A sudden disturbing feeling: qualms of homesickness.
3. An uneasy feeling about the propriety or rightness of a course of action.

[Origin unknown.]

qualmish qualm'ish adj.
qualmishly qualm'ish·ly adv.

SYNONYMS qualm, scruple, compunction, misgiving. These nouns denote a feeling of uncertainty about the fitness or correctness of an action.

Qualm is a disturbing feeling of uneasiness and self-doubt: “an ignorant ruffianly gaucho, who . . . would . . . fight, steal, and do other naughty things without a qualm” (W.H. Hudson).

Scruple is an uneasy feeling arising from conscience or principle about a course of action: “My father's old-fashioned notions boggled a little at first to this arrangement . . . but his scruples were in the end overruled” (John Galt).

Compunction implies a prick or twinge of conscience aroused by wrongdoing or the prospect of wrongdoing: stole the money without compunction.

Misgiving suggests often sudden apprehension: had misgivings about quitting his job.

compunction

Syllabification: (com·punc·tion)

Pronunciation: /kəmˈpəNG(k)SHən/

Translate compunction | into German | into Italian

noun

[usually with negative]

• a feeling of guilt or moral scruple that follows the doing of something bad:spend the money without compunction
• a pricking of the conscience:he had no compunction about behaving blasphemously

Derivatives

compunctionless

adjective

compunctious

Pronunciation: /-SHəs/

adjective

compunctiously

Pronunciation: /-SHəslē/

adverb

Origin:

Middle English: from Old French componction, from ecclesiastical Latin compunctio(n-), from Latin compungere 'prick sharply', from com- (expressing intensive force) + pungere 'to prick'

twinge

n.

1. A sharp, sudden physical pain. See synonyms at pain.
2. A mental or emotional pain: a twinge of guilt.

v., twinged, twing·ing, twing·es. v.tr.

1. To cause to feel a sharp pain.
2. Obsolete. To tweak; pinch.

v.intr.
To feel a twinge or twinges.

[From Middle English twengen, to pinch, from Old English twengan.]

overrule

(ō'vər-rūl')
tr.v., -ruled, -rul·ing, -rules.

1. 1. To disallow the action or arguments of, especially by virtue of higher authority: The defense attorney's objection was overruled by the judge.
   2. To decide or rule against: overrule a policy decision.
   3. To declare null and void; reverse.
2. To dominate by strong influence; prevail over.