qualm

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (4)  · 
“
And the salve to the qualm was always the same remembrance that the deed had not been done yet.

View all »
Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

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

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • My only qualm is that the editor's preview, which needs to be refreshed between each edit to see changes, is a little bit small, making minute adjustments on larger photos a tad difficult. —  Original Signal - The best of Web 2.0
  • So the obvious qualm is the issue of the woman's health. —  Boundless Line
  • Here, m the mildest qualm or fugitive doubt is heresy. —  A Change in the Wind
  • The Republicans do this without the slightest qualm, proudly (as we noted here earlier), frankly, without any finesse and very little pretense. —  Chris Floyd - Empire Burlesque
  • My biggest qualm, personally, comes from the guilt I feel at watching someone work so hard to move me around. —  The World, According To Me
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 211 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

twinge ·  misgiving ·  tremor ·  stirring ·  spasm ·  scruple ·  queasiness ·  twitch ·  revulsion ·  undercurrent ·  flicker ·  compunction

Used in the same contextWord Family

qualm:   qualms
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Origin unknown.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Also dial. calm; from Middle English qualm, quelm, pestilence, death, from Anglo-Saxon cwealm, death, slaughter, murder, destruction, plague, pestilence (= Old Saxon qualm, death, destruction, = Dutch kwalm, suffocating vapor, smoke, = Old High German qualm, chwalm, Middle High German qualm, twalm, slaughter, destruction, German qualm, suffocating vapor, vapor, steam, damp, smoke, nausea, = Swedish qvalm, suffocating air, sultriness, = Danish kvalm, suffocating air. kvalme, nausea), from cwelan, die, whence cwellan, cause to die, kill: see quail, and cf. quale and quell.
  2. from qualm, n.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/kwɑm/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a year.

Recently looked up

Attic · blackamoor · Cost · Best · autocrat

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

eu oi oìa u ou e u oìa · the octopi are dry · Kansas City · spell it rite · put it in your pocket