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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Conscientious and exact; painstaking. See Synonyms at meticulous.
  2. adj. Having scruples; principled.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Inclined to scruple; hesitating to determine or to act; cautious from a fear of erring; especially, having scruples of conscience.
  2. Given to making objections; captious.
  3. Nice; doubtful.
  4. Exact; precise; rigorous; punctilious.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. Exactly and carefully conducted.
  2. adj. Having scruples or compunctions.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Full of scruples; inclined to scruple; nicely doubtful; hesitating to determine or to act, from a fear of offending or of doing wrong.
  2. adj. Careful; cautious; exact; nice.
  3. adj. Given to making objections; captious.
  4. adj. Liable to be doubted; doubtful; nice.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. having scruples; arising from a sense of right and wrong; principled.
  2. adj. characterized by extreme care and great effort

Etymologies

  1. Middle English, from Old French scrupuleux, from Latin scrūpulōsus, from scrūpulus, scruple; see scruple.

Examples

  • “I know you, my dear Mandlebert, to be, by nature, penetrating and minute in your observations; which, in your general commerce with the world, will protect both your understanding and your affections from the usual snares of youth: But here – to be even scrupulous is not enough; to avoid all danger of repentance, you must become positively distrustful.”

    Camilla: or, A Picture of Youth

  • “I decided to go once every two or three weeks don't want to be "scrupulous"--something we were warned against in RCIA, but I still don't really know what I'm doing.”

    But God loves me anyway, right? (Now with footnotes!)

  • “If Bronner's reporting had been genuinely "scrupulous" - that is, informed, accurate, and unbiased-almost surely his family ties with Israel would never have become an issue, and it would not be necessary to distinguish between real and merely "imaginary or hypothetical" conflicts of interest (in Keller's words).”

    Palestine Blogs aggregator

  • “Years afterwards I spent a night in an Orthodox Monastery in Russia, when I regretfully recalled the scrupulous cleanliness of La”

    The Days Before Yesterday

  • “Vanasek was uniformly described as a scrupulous, old-school credit officer who was troubled by WaMu's looser approach to lending.”

    The Seattle Times

  • “Ford, famously known as a scrupulous fashion designer, has repeatedly said that”

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed

  • “But aides said they were merely trying to protect the people of Florida who, despite the campaign's "scrupulous" refusal to campaign in the state, showed up to vote for Clinton anyway.”

    Easter Lemming Liberal News

  • “After your assessment, they'll let you know who "scrupulous" voters prefer and who gets the "aesthetic" vote.”

    Daily Digest: Capturing, Tagging, and Protecting the Vote

  • “He insisted that News Corp. has been "scrupulous" about the integrity of the paper.”

    The Wall Street Journal: Special Committee's Statement

  • “Talk about the International Red Cross' statement that the Canadian Forces is "scrupulous" about following the rules pertaining to detainees in Afghanistan.”

    More spinning than a figure skating competition

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‘scrupulous’ has been looked up 2388 times, loved by 5 people, added to 69 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 14.