qualm

qualm, scruple, compunction, demur can all denote a feeling of doubt or hesitation as to the rightness or wisdom of something one is doing or is about to do.

Qualm implies an uneasy, often a sickening, sensation that one is not following the dictates of his conscience or of his better judgment

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have no qualms at all in committing adultery— Book-of-the-Month Club News

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how few little girls can squash insects and kill rabbits without a qualm— Rose Macaulay

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we go on spreading culture as if it were peanut butter . . . but we feel qualms about the result— Barzun

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Scruple denotes mental disturbance occasioned by doubt of the rightness, the propriety, the fairness, or, sometimes, the outcome of an act; it often implies a principle as the source of the disturbance, and it may imply an overnice conscience or an extremely delicate sense of honor

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she has no scruples about carrying away any of my books

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began to have scruples, to feel obligations, to find that veracity and honor were . . . compelling principles— Shaw

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he has not pretended an apprehension which he does not feel, but has candidly disclosed his conscientious scruples— Meltzer

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Compunction (see also PENITENCE) implies a usually transitory prick or sting of conscience that warns a person that what he is about to do or is doing is wrong, unfair, unjust, or improper; it may additionally suggest a degree of concern for a potential victim

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showed no compunction in planning devilish engines of military destruction— Ellis

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he has to be taught ... to feel compunction when he has wantonly caused tears— Russell

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Demur stresses hesitation to such an extent that it carries a stronger implication of delay than any of the other terms; it usually suggests, however, a delay caused by objections or irresolution rather than by an awakened conscience or by a scruple or compunction

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he doubts with a persistence of demur and question that might well have surprised Descartes himself— Times Lit. Sup.

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with some misgivings but without demur his committee accepted the decision— Time

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Analogous words: misgiving, *apprehension, foreboding, presentiment: doubt, mistrust, suspicion, *uncertainty