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The Scarlet Pimpernel vocabulary
143 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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compunction
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synonyms: contrition ???
► definition
Definition:a guilty conscience; remorsefulness
► uses
Uses:
“Father,” said the Prince, “you mistake my compunction: true, I honour Hippolita’s virtues; I think her a Saint; and wish it were for my soul’s health to tie faster the knot that has united us— but alas! Father, you know not the bitterest of my pangs!
Horace Walpole. The Castle of Otranto (1764)
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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.
E. B. White. Charlotte's Web (1952)
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She was a malicious and vengeful woman, I knew that. Nevertheless I couldn’t shake it, that small compunction towards her.
Margaret Atwood. The Handmaid's Tale (1986)
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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.
Charles Dickens. David Copperfield (1850)
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I began gradually to realise that Françoise's kindness, her compunction, the sum total of her virtues concealed many of these back-kitchen tragedies,
Marcel Proust. In Search of Lost Time [volume 1] (1913)
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Mr. Linton stood looking at her in sudden compunction and fear.
Emily Brontë. Wuthering Heights (1847)
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"I beg your pardon," said the reporter, with genuine compunction.
Aldous Huxley. Brave New World, p.169 (1932)
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