compunction
A pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.
Noun
- A pricking of conscience or a feeling of regret, especially one which is slight or fleeting.
- Besides, to do De Joinville justice, he felt, too, a degree of kindly compunction for the former harsh judgment entertained of one who so little deserved it; and—for there is no such thing in the human mind as an...
- His age—his kindness, disarmed Pen’s anger somewhat, and made Arthur feel no little compunction for the deed which he was about to do. - 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 70, in The...
- [H]e would have had no compunction whatever in flinging him out of the highest window in Venice into the deepest water of the city. - 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Something Right Somewhere”, in Little...
Synonyms: qualm regret remorse agenbite rue ruth compunction contrition guilt penitence repentance self-reproach sorriness
Origin
From Middle English compunccion, borrowed from Old French compunction, from Late Latin compunctionem (“a pricking”), from Latin compunctus, the past participle of compungere (“to severely prick”), from com- + pungere (“to prick”).