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Meaning of Qualm | Babel Free

Noun CEFR B1
kwɑːm

Definitions

  1. A feeling of apprehension, doubt, fear etc.
  2. A sudden sickly feeling; queasiness.
  3. A prick of the conscience; a moral scruple, a pang of guilt.
  4. Mortality; plague; pestilence.
    UK, archaic, dialectal
  5. A calamity or disaster.
    UK, archaic, dialectal

Equivalents

Examples

“[W]ho vvould not rather Sleep Quietly upon a Hammock, vvithout either Cares in his Head, or Crudities in his Stomach, then lye Carking upon a Bed of State, vvith the Qualms and Tvvinges that accompany Surfeits and Exceſs?”
“"Do you have any particular qualms about leaving Pencey?" / "Oh, I have a few qualms, all right. Sure … but not too many. Not yet, anyway.[…]"”
“Opponents of those privatization plans hoped to use Mr. [Neil] Armstrong's qualms as ammunition to block the White House initiatives, and they asked for more public statements.”
“Questions of bad taste have hung around Dear Evan Hansen since it debuted on Broadway in 2016, though such qualms were mostly drowned out by praise for Platt’s visceral live performance and the catchy Broadway-by-way-of-Christian-rock tunes from wunderkind songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (who are also responsible for the toe-tapping numbers from The Greatest Showman).”
“This lawyer has no qualms about saving people who are on the wrong side of the law.”

CEFR level

B1
Intermediate
This word is part of the CEFR B1 vocabulary — intermediate level.
See all B1 English words →

See also

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