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compunction
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  • And I didn't want anyone to think I was a racist—although nobody else in the Camp seemed to have the slightest compunction about expressing the broadest racial generalizations.†   (source)
  • The elves worried Roran; he had seen them kill soldiers who were trying to surrender, cutting them down without the slightest compunction.†   (source)
  • I felt no compunction in yielding to my urge to touch her cheeks, to lightly touch her eyelids—familiarities, liberties I hadn't taken with her since the night of our quarrel.†   (source)
  • She was torn with compunction and tempted to comply, but the very next letter she opened that day was from that same Colonel Cathcart, her husband's group commander, and began: Dear Mrs., Mr., Miss, or Mr. and Mrs. Daneeka: Words cannot express the deep personal grief I experienced when your husband, son, father or brother was killed, wounded or reported missing in action.†   (source)
  • Karenin correctly assessed the value of being one of a kind, and I can state without compunction that he greatly appreciated his friendship with the pig.†   (source)
  • The rat had no morals, no conscience, no scruples, no consideration, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunctions, no higher feeling, no friendliness, no anything.†   (source)
  • A man who would pay for sexual favors would have no compunction about murder.†   (source)
  • As long as Mikael is single and available, I would have no compunction.†   (source)
  • It would have been different if that wasn't the case—he'd had no compunctions, at the time, against making a meal of me.†   (source)
  • Junior's few photos revealed a face that was just a little too fine-boned—a look that people back then felt no compunction about referring to as "poor white trash."†   (source)
  • He was a surly man, and he had no compunction about letting me know that he didn't like me.†   (source)
  • As I have said, Nathan had encouraged me to keep Sophie company, so I had no compunction—after he had gone off to work—about walking out in the hallway and calling up to her with an invitation.†   (source)
  • ANNIE'S hand in compunction falters to her own face, but when HELEN hits at her again, ANNIE deliberately slaps her again.†   (source)
  • But the Bugs didn't have any such compunctions among themselves if they could get one of us.†   (source)
  • Compunction gave Eugene a little elderly-like rap, and he recognized that Bertsingers' was more respectable than most of the jewelry stores: Mr. Bertsinger Senior was on hand.†   (source)
  • Her look smote him with compunction, and he cried out, as if he saw her drowning in a dream:   (source)
    compunction = a feeling of deep regret and guilt
  • Nevertheless I couldn't shake it, that small compunction towards her.†   (source)
  • Of his own will or under compunction, it does not matter.†   (source)
  • I admired her lack of compunction, the courage of her bad manners, the energy of simple rage.†   (source)
  • The Count knocked and waited; he knocked again to be sure; then retrieving the key from his vest, he unlocked the door and crossed the threshold clear-eyed, quick, and without compunction.†   (source)
  • You notice how in the first act he always seems so removed and indifferent; but once his indignation is roused, Alexander, there is no one more willing to do what is necessary—to act clear-eyed, quick, and without compunction.†   (source)
  • I would have no compunction about cutting off your fingers, one by one, and using them to fringe a very small rug.†   (source)
  • There is much evidence, for instance, that in the West Indies in the mid-700s the European masters for a time felt no compunction about working slaves to death.†   (source)
  • I would shoot him with no more compunction than I would a snake or a man who cuckolded me.†   (source)
  • "I beg your pardon," said the reporter, with genuine compunction.†   (source)
  • When her husband came, she greeted him familiarly and affectionately, and as I witnessed it my own heart was wrenched, but not, I must confess, with compunction.†   (source)
  • —and came to the surface and saw the conspirators still standing there it was with some compunction.†   (source)
  • He obviously had no compunction about contradicting himself, for a few minutes later he told Tarrou that God did not exist, since otherwise there would be no need for priests.†   (source)
  • I had committed myself earlier to spend the Easter vacation with Collins and, though I would have broken my word without compunction, and left my former friend friendless, had Sebastian made a sign, no sign was made; accordingly Collins and I spent several economical and instructive weeks together in Ravenna.†   (source)
  • Rex, indeed, was neither starched nor wrinkled; his seniors thought him a pushful young cad, but Julia recognized the unmistakable chic—the flavor of "Max" and "F.E." and the Prince of Wales, of the big table in the Sporting Club, the second magnum, and the fourth cigar, of the chauffeur kept waiting hour after hour without compunction—which her friends would envy.†   (source)
  • If they fire, Watson, have no compunction about shooting them down.†   (source)
  • "It is this," he continued, with capricious compunction.†   (source)
  • "It was horrid of me to say that of Gerty," she said with charming compunction.†   (source)
  • But she seemed timid at his approach, and compunction wrought on him at sight of it.†   (source)
  • I struck him down with no more compunction than if he had been some foul and venomous beast.†   (source)
  • It may be that he pursues her doggedly and steadily, with no touch of compunction, remorse, or pity.†   (source)
  • Struggles and resolves had transformed themselves into compunction and anxiety.†   (source)
  • Mr. Linton stood looking at her in sudden compunction and fear.†   (source)
  • "I am sorry to see 'ee looking so ill," he stammered with unconcealed compunction.†   (source)
  • Hers was not the nature to spare him, and she had no compunction.†   (source)
  • Why, then they have some compunction, and are for making up matters with Heaven.†   (source)
  • But Ishmael drew nigher, and long contemplated his work in awe, though not in compunction.†   (source)
  • This child had taken and lost her treasured amethyst brooch and now sat there calmly reciting the details thereof without the least apparent compunction or repentance.†   (source)
  • I felt no compunction in doing so for under the circumstances I felt that I should protect myself in every way I could.†   (source)
  • Had he already laid his plans for catching the daring plotter, red-handed, in France, and sending him to the guillotine without compunction or delay?†   (source)
  • But they were generally accompanied by a sense of compunction and self-abasement of which Newland Archer felt no trace.†   (source)
  • Scurrying back to Minneapolis to see a girl he had known as a child seemed the interesting and romantic thing to do, so without compunction he wired his mother not to expect him…. sat in the train, and thought about himself for thirty-six hours.†   (source)
  • Not from compunction certainly, but, as it were mechanically, I proceeded to get the ladder in myself.†   (source)
  • I began gradually to realise that Francoise's kindness, her compunction, the sum total of her virtues concealed many of these back-kitchen tragedies, just as history reveals to us that the reigns of the kings and queens who are portrayed as kneeling with clasped hands in the windows of churches, were stained by oppression and bloodshed.†   (source)
  • Even without this invitation, K. had shown no compunction in already placing his foot in the middle of the bed covers, then he looked out through the open door and drew his foot back again.†   (source)
  • Now he was smitten with compunction, yet irritated that so trifling an omission should be stored up against him after nearly two years of marriage.†   (source)
  • Gerty paused with sudden compunction.†   (source)
  • I do not know whether he was seized with compunction at that moment for the part he was playing, but I know that I never felt more heartily ashamed of myself in my life than when I saw the beautiful creature against whom I was conspiring, or the grace and kindliness with which she waited upon the injured man.†   (source)
  • Mother and daughter adored each other and revered their son and brother; and Archer loved them with a tenderness made compunctious and uncritical by the sense of their exaggerated admiration, and by his secret satisfaction in it.†   (source)
  • She must find some way out of the slough into which she had stumbled: it was not so much compunction as the dread of her morning thoughts that pressed on her the need of action.†   (source)
  • Here again: Mr. Lorry's inquiries into Miss Pross's personal history had established the fact that her brother Solomon was a heartless scoundrel who had stripped her of everything she possessed, as a stake to speculate with, and had abandoned her in her poverty for evermore, with no touch of compunction.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Flint had rendered her poor foster-sister childless, apparently without any compunction; and with cruel selfishness had ruined her health by years of incessant, unrequited toil, and broken rest.†   (source)
  • Will had bruised her pride too sorely for her to feel any compunction towards him and Dorothea: her own injury seemed much the greater.†   (source)
  • Father Ignatius had many doubts, and much secret compunction of conscience; but, like a wise chief, he endeavoured to turn the sad event to some account, in the impending warfare of faith.†   (source)
  • Emma wished he would be less pointed, yet could not help being amused; and when on glancing her eye towards Jane Fairfax she caught the remains of a smile, when she saw that with all the deep blush of consciousness, there had been a smile of secret delight, she had less scruple in the amusement, and much less compunction with respect to her.†   (source)
  • We see the foaming brook with compunction; if our own life flowed with the right energy, we should shame the brook.†   (source)
  • Maggie felt a deep movement of compunction; for the moment, her mind ceased to contend against what she felt to be cruel and unreasonable, and in her self-blame she justified her brother.†   (source)
  • Mrs. Sparsit saw James Harthouse come and go; she heard of him here and there; she saw the changes of the face he had studied; she, too, remarked to a nicety how and when it clouded, how and when it cleared; she kept her black eyes wide open, with no touch of pity, with no touch of compunction, all absorbed in interest.†   (source)
  • Those whom he has been the chief cause of leading into ruin, he can neglect and desert without the smallest compunction.†   (source)
  • But, there is one broad sky over all the world, and whether it be blue or cloudy, the same heaven beyond it; so, perhaps, he had no need of compunction for thinking as he did.†   (source)
  • A movement of compunction, helped by those small indefinable influences which every personal relation exerts on a pliant nature, had urged him into a secret marriage, which was a blight on his life.†   (source)
  • And George Osborne, as she walked away—and Amelia looked reprovingly at him—felt some little manly compunction for having inflicted any unnecessary unkindness upon this helpless creature.†   (source)
  • I had little doubt then, and I have less doubt now, that he would have knocked me down without the least compunction, if I had hesitated.†   (source)
  • He thought of this after he got into the street; but he might have spared his compunction, for Catherine had not noticed the lapse.†   (source)
  • He told every rivet on my armour with a cloth-yard shaft, that rapped against my ribs with as little compunction as if my bones had been of iron—But that I wore a shirt of Spanish mail under my plate-coat, I had been fairly sped.†   (source)
  • Maggie burst out, cut to the heart with pity and compunction, and throwing her arms round her mother's neck; "I was always naughty and troublesome to you.†   (source)
  • Perhaps it was compunction towards the kind and simple creature, who had been the first in life to defend her, perhaps it was a dislike to all such sentimental scenes—but Rebecca, satisfied with her part in the transaction, never presented herself before Colonel Dobbin and the lady whom he married.†   (source)
  • This, though he supposed him to live by his wits at play-tables and the like; though he suspected him to be a coward, while he himself was daring and courageous; though he thoroughly knew him to be disliked by Minnie; and though he cared so little for him, after all, that if he had given her any tangible personal cause to regard him with aversion, he would have had no compunction whatever in flinging him out of the highest window in Venice into the deepest water of the city.†   (source)
  • Has he so little pity or compunction?†   (source)
  • Nancy was silent: her spirit of rectitude would not let her try to soften the edge of what she felt to be a just compunction.†   (source)
  • Alarm at the possible effect on himself of her husband's strongly manifested anger, would have checked any expression of her own resentment, even if she had been quite free from doubt and compunction under the consciousness that there might be some justice in his last insinuation.†   (source)
  • So much compunction for having ever wronged him, even by a shapeless thought, did I feel within me, that the confession of having done so was rising to my lips.†   (source)
  • The dangerous illness and miscarriage of Mrs. Farfrae was soon rumoured through the town, and an apprehensive guess having been given as to its cause by the leaders in the exploit, compunction and fear threw a dead silence over all particulars of their orgie; while those immediately around Lucetta would not venture to add to her husband's distress by alluding to the subject.†   (source)
  • The words of scorn, the refusal to shake hands, the mastery asserted over him in their last conversation in the Hermitage—above all, the sense of having been knocked down, to which a man does not very well reconcile himself, even under the most heroic circumstances—pressed on him with a galling pain which was stronger than compunction.†   (source)
  • Not so my companion: she ran back in terror, knelt down, and cried, and soothed, and entreated, till he grew quiet from lack of breath: by no means from compunction at distressing her.†   (source)
  • "You mean to say that I have done you wrong, in taking the lady from her father's house, and leading her so far against her will into these wild districts," returned the unmoved squatter, who manifested as little resentment as he betrayed compunction at the charge.†   (source)
  • She imparted these stories gradually to Miss Crawley; gave her the whole benefit of them; felt it to be her bounden duty as a Christian woman and mother of a family to do so; had not the smallest remorse or compunction for the victim whom her tongue was immolating; nay, very likely thought her act was quite meritorious, and plumed herself upon her resolute manner of performing it.†   (source)
  • "He goes to make my brother prisoner," said Prince John to De Bracy, "with as little touch of compunction, as if it but concerned the liberty of a Saxon franklin.†   (source)
  • "And so it would," said Dolly, almost with compunction; "them things are easier said nor done; and I'm partly ashamed o' talking."†   (source)
  • With a movement of compunction as new and strange to him as everything else within the last hour, he started from his chair and went close up to Jem, looking at him as if he wanted to assure himself of the expression in his face.†   (source)
  • He had just compunction enough for having done nothing for his sisters himself, to be exceedingly anxious that everybody else should do a great deal; and an offer from Colonel Brandon, or a legacy from Mrs. Jennings, was the easiest means of atoning for his own neglect.†   (source)
  • My arguments perverted some others, particularly Collins and Ralph; but, each of them having afterwards wrong'd me greatly without the least compunction, and recollecting Keith's conduct towards me (who was another freethinker), and my own towards Vernon and Miss Read, which at times gave me great trouble, I began to suspect that this doctrine, tho' it might be true, was not very useful.†   (source)
  • She had no compunctions about the lie and getting the doll under false pretenses.†   (source)
  • He of course felt no compunctions for proposing a general as a sacrifice.†   (source)
  • Gavroche was not without some compunctions in the matter of that letter.†   (source)
  • …into the region of the strange Untried; it is but the first salutation to the possibilities of the immense Remote, the Wild, the Watery, the Unshored; therefore, to the death-longing eyes of such men, who still have left in them some interior compunctions against suicide, does the all-contributed and all-receptive ocean alluringly spread forth his whole plain of unimaginable, taking terrors, and wonderful, new-life adventures; and from the hearts of infinite Pacifics, the thousand…†   (source)
  • "It isn't in the least that you've married—it is that you have married HIM," she had deemed it her duty to remark; agreeing, it will be seen, much more with Ralph Touchett than she suspected, though she had few of his hesitations and compunctions.†   (source)
  • "You've plenty of time," she had said to Isabel in return for the mutilated confidences which our young woman made her and which didn't pretend to be perfect, though we have seen that at moments the girl had compunctions at having said so much.†   (source)
  • Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
    That no compunctious visitings of nature
    Shake my fell purpose   (source)
    compunctious = pricking the conscience (causing the feeling that it would be wrong to do something)
  • …if any happy chance should lead them to discover the author who is said to have written a history now going about under the title of 'Second Part of the Achievements of Don Quixote of La Mancha,' they beg of him on my behalf as earnestly as they can to forgive me for having been, without intending it, the cause of his writing so many and such monstrous absurdities as he has written in it; for I am leaving the world with a feeling of compunction at having provoked him to write them."†   (source)
  • By these and the like declarations, he extorted some compunction from Tom, in which that youth was not over-sincere; for he really meditated some return for all the smarting favours he had received at the hands of the pedagogue.†   (source)
  • Then, as compunctious for my fault I said, "Now wilt thou therefore tell that fallen one that his son is still conjoined with the living, and if just now I was dumb to answer, make him know that I was so because I was still thinking in that error which you have solved for me."†   (source)
  • A butcher, I make no doubt, would feel compunction at the slaughter of a fine horse; and though a surgeon can feel no pain in cutting off a limb, I have known him compassionate a man in a fit of the gout.†   (source)
  • Or, to hit the case still more nearly, he felt the same compunction with a bawd, when some poor innocent, whom she hath ensnared into her hands, falls into fits at the first proposal of what is called seeing company.†   (source)
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