Others long before them . . . scrupled more the
books of hereties than of gentiles. --Milton.
2. To excite scruples in; to cause to scruple. [R.]
Letters which did still scruple many of them. --E.
Symmons.
2. Hence, a very small quantity; a particle.
I will not bate thee a scruple. --Shak.
3. Hesitation as to action from the difficulty of determining
what is right or expedient; unwillingness, doubt, or
hesitation proceeding from motives of conscience.
He was made miserable by the conflict between his
tastes and his scruples. --Macaulay.
{To make scruple}, to hesitate from conscientious motives; to
scruple. --Locke.
We are often over-precise, scrupling to say or do those
things which lawfully we may. --Fuller.
Men scruple at the lawfulness of a set form of divine
worship. --South.