scruple-shop
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.89 in modern English
20
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A place where religious matters are debated, particularly with the aim of relieving participants of their scruples of conscience.
Obsolete
Example Sentences
- "The cure for diseased consciences is not to be found in a “scruple shop,” but in the love and care of the great Physician."
- "Elinor, on the other hand, bred up amid a clamour of perpetual contention,—for the house of her mother’s family, in which her first years had been passed, was, in the language of the profane of those times, a scruple-shop, where the godly of all denominations held their conferences of contradiction,—had her mind early awakened to differences of opinion, and opposition of principle."
- "Others are standing at the cross-roads of duty, and are perplexed with interesting questions of casuistry. One of the great divines of the seventeenth century was said to “keep a scruple-shop.” The Barclay had “a scruple-shop,” and the business done in it was considerable."
- "The world is not a scruple shop, said Carlyle; and Cornewall Lewis could speak of Government as a rough business in which they who practise it cannot always adhere to the morals of the classroom."
Etymology
Compound of scruple + shop. Originally applied derogatorily by Oxford students to a particular group of seven Presbyterian ministers who established weekly meetings to discuss questions of conscience in Oxford in 1646.