scruple

The idea that Saddam would scruple to support al Qaeda seems preposterous even now.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 19, 2025

They were both these outsiders from the boroughs with tremendous life force and ambition with a shared, I think, lack of scruple or ethical core, for whom winning was the only moral measure.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2024

In the chaotic tangle of dust, horseflesh and steel, finding an unexpected advantage was not difficult for those unyoked from scruple.

From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2024

The pontiff lamented the “poverty into which they are often forced, victims of injustice and the inequality of a throwaway society that hurries past without seeing them and without scruple abandons them to their fate.”

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 14, 2021

Thompson was dashing and ambitious, "handsome in feature and figure," occasionally courageous and exceedingly bright, but untroubled by anything so inconveniencing as a scruple.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Employees in these movies come to the conclusion their boss lacks scruples, boundaries or the qualifications to have the job.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 29, 2025

Theo has misgivings, but his passion for Wynona overrides his scruples.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 7, 2025

Some may have otherwise been stolen by Western visitors with less scruples to be sold on the lucrative European and American artefacts market.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2024

Executives at established tech giants might have their own honest scruples about where all of this is heading.

From Slate ● Nov. 27, 2023

My only hope is that one who flies down a stair rail as beautifully as you do can overcome his scruples in this matter.

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

Though Antonin fashions himself as a tormented literary protagonist — a scrupled thief and a thwarted artist — he emerges as little more than a posturing, self-pitying millennial unwilling to take charge of his life.

From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2023

The extravagance and general profligacy which he scrupled not to lay at Mr. Wickham’s charge, exceedingly shocked her; the more so, as she could bring no proof of its injustice.

From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

But he has done this, and he has not scrupled to tell me so, and to intimate that he would like the opportunity of cultivating your good graces.

From Cynthia Wakeham's Money by Anna Katharine Green

And while some would not have scrupled to strike the blood royal, more would have been quick to protect and avenge it.

From Historical Romances: Under the Red Robe, Count Hannibal, A Gentleman of France by Stanley J. Weyman

It may have been known to him that other men had not scrupled so to promote their own interests.

From The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Genesis by Marcus Dods

Brutal force has hitherto governed the world, and that the science of politics is in its infancy, is evident from philosophers scrupling to give the knowledge most useful to man that determinate distinction.

From Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

Even in the last revision of his early compositions we find him altering passages, which at first sight appear impeccable, with the object of enriching their harmony and without scrupling to use hidden octaves.

From Johann Sebastian Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel

Insomuch that, finding himself discountenanced on those accounts by the then Warden of Wadham, he shifted colledges to Trinity, and, when there, went away without his degree, scrupling, forsooth, the Subscription then required.

From Andrew Marvell by John Morley

By way of vindication, of scrupling it, and suffering upon it.

From A Hind Let Loose Or, An Historical Representation of the Testimonies of the Church of Scotland for the Interest of Christ. With the True State Thereof in All Its Periods by Alexander Shields

"His father died a short time since and left him in my care," said the squire, not scrupling to make a misstatement.

From The Young Musician ; Or, Fighting His Way by Horatio Alger