compunctious

Definitions

Exhibiting compunctions, scruples, feelings of guilt.

Examples

“Come⟳ you Spirits, That tend⟳ on mortall thoughts, vnſex me here, And fill⟳ me from the Crowne to the Toe, top-full Of direſt Crueltie: make⟳ thick my blood, Stop⟳ vp th’acceſſe, and paſſage to Remorſe, That no compunctious viſitings of Nature Shake⟳ my fell purpoſe, nor keepe peace betweene Th’effect, and hit.”

“Nothing can be conceived more hard than the heart of a thoroughbred metaphysician. It comes nearer to the cold malignity of a wicked spirit than to the frailty and passion of a man. It is like⟳ that of the principle of evil himself, incorporeal, pure, unmixed, dephlegmated, defecated evil. It is no easy operation to eradicate humanity from the human breast. What Shakspeare calls “the compunctious visitings of nature” will sometimes knock⟳ at their hearts, and protest⟳ against their murderous speculations. But they have⟳ a means of compounding with their nature. Their humanity is not dissolved. They only give⟳ it a long prorogation.”

CEFR level