- upright
- upright, honest, just, conscientious, scrupulous, honorable are comparable when they are applied to men or their acts and words and mean having or exhibiting a strict regard for what is morally right.Upright implies manifest rectitude and an uncompromising adherence to high moral principles{
the old-fashioned word upright. It's a good word, comprises a good many things—all the straight qualities, like loyalty, truthfulness, the right sort of pride— Goudge
}{we shall exult, if they who rule the land, be men . . . wise, upright, valiant; not a servile band— Wordsworth
}Honest implies a recognition of and strict adherence to solid virtues (as truthfulness, candor, respect for others' possessions, sincerity, and fairness){it was fiction, but it was made as all honest fiction must be, from the stuff of human life— Wolfe
}It is more widely applicable than upright which often implies independence of spirit and self-mastery and which is therefore referable chiefly to thoughtful and highly disciplined men. Honest, on the other hand, may be used in reference to the ignorant as well as the learned, and to the simple as well as the wise{the honest heart that's free frae a' intended fraud or guile— Burns
}{if we be honest with ourselves, we shall be honest with each other— Macdonald
}Just (see also FAIR) may stress conscious choice and regular practice of what is right or equitable{a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews— Acts 10:22
}{human beings are a good deal less rational and innately just than the optimists of the eighteenth century supposed— Huxley
}Conscientious and scrupulous both imply an active moral sense which governs all one's actions.Conscientious stresses painstaking efforts to follow that guide at all costs, especially in one's observance of the moral law or in the performance of one's duty{his whole character . . . was far too sturdily conscientious to allow of any suspicion being cast upon his rectitude—/!. W. Ward
}{conscientious and incorruptible and right-minded, a young man born to worry— Styron
}Scrupulous (see also CAREFUL 2), on the other hand, implies either anxiety in obeying strictly the dictates of conscience or meticulous attention to the morality of the details of conduct as well as to the morality of one's ends{Sebastian was scrupulous, and certain accepted conventions had forced him to satisfy his conscience— Sackville-West
}implies the guidance of a high sense of honor or of a sense of what one should do in obedience not only to the dictates of conscience but to the demands made by social position or office, by the code of his profession, or by the esteem in which he is held{Leopold's defenders . . . believed that he had done the right and honorable thing in sharing the fate of his soldiers and of the Belgian people— Shirer
}{did this vile world show many such as thee, thou perfect, just, and honorable man—Shelley
}Analogous words: *moral, ethical, virtuous, righteous: *fair, equitable, impartial: *straightforward, aboveboard
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
