scruple

Unencumbered by deep convictions and free from the constraints imposed by conventional morality or codes of honor, he can alter his tactics to the exigencies of the moment without hesitation or scruple.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

They were both these outsiders from the boroughs with tremendous life force and ambition with a shared, I think, lack of scruple or ethical core, for whom winning was the only moral measure.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2024

In the chaotic tangle of dust, horseflesh and steel, finding an unexpected advantage was not difficult for those unyoked from scruple.

From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2024

The pontiff lamented the “poverty into which they are often forced, victims of injustice and the inequality of a throwaway society that hurries past without seeing them and without scruple abandons them to their fate.”

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 14, 2021

In manner he was cold and imperious, and he was without scruple in the furtherance of his ambitions.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Employees in these movies come to the conclusion their boss lacks scruples, boundaries or the qualifications to have the job.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 29, 2025

Some may have otherwise been stolen by Western visitors with less scruples to be sold on the lucrative European and American artefacts market.

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2024

At the start of the play, he’s a war hero with conspicuous scruples.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2024

Executives at established tech giants might have their own honest scruples about where all of this is heading.

From Slate ● Nov. 27, 2023

“No, I haven’t. I won’t shape them from the air. I’ll form them out of real things. That should satisfy your scruples, Mandy dear.”

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine

Though Antonin fashions himself as a tormented literary protagonist — a scrupled thief and a thwarted artist — he emerges as little more than a posturing, self-pitying millennial unwilling to take charge of his life.

From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2023

The extravagance and general profligacy which he scrupled not to lay at Mr. Wickham’s charge, exceedingly shocked her; the more so, as she could bring no proof of its injustice.

From "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

They had absolute control of the persons and property of all in the country, and they scrupled not to keep and use their power to the last.

From A History of Oregon, 1792-1849 Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information by William Henry Gray

I have not scrupled to give you this History, because all the Persons who are Subjects of it are dead.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by Karl Ludwig von P?llnitz

Some instances had occurred in which this prohibition had been disregarded; and upon these occasions the over-zealous Protestants had not scrupled to take the law into their own hands.

From Life of Mary Queen of Scots, Volume I (of 2) by Henry Glassford Bell

Insomuch that, finding himself discountenanced on those accounts by the then Warden of Wadham, he shifted colledges to Trinity, and, when there, went away without his degree, scrupling, forsooth, the Subscription then required.

From Andrew Marvell by John Morley

Weary, and not scrupling to defile Bulika with my presence, I took advantage of the shelter, poor as it was.

From Lilith, a romance by George MacDonald

Enterprising reporters, aided by official leaking somewhere, obtained possession of considerable facts, including the prisoner's arrest and statement, before two o'clock, and the afternoon journals promptly published them, not scrupling to add various imaginary embellishments.

From In Friendship's Guise by William Murray Graydon

Chaplain Tomkyns, who took cognisance of "Paradise Lost," was fortunately a broad-minded man, disposed to live and let live, though scrupling somewhat when he found "perplexity" and "fear of change" imputed to "monarchs."

From Life of John Milton by Richard Garnett

At the same time far be it from me to—hum—to put upon the fine feelings by which my partial friends are actuated, the slight of scrupling to admit that those offerings are—hum—highly acceptable.

From Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens