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qualm Definition

qualm (kwäm)

noun

  1. a sudden, brief feeling of sickness, faintness, or nausea
  2. a sudden feeling of uneasiness or doubt; misgiving
  3. a twinge of conscience; scruple

Etymology: ME qualme < OE cwealm, death, disaster (akin to Ger qual, pain, Swed kvalm, nausea) < base of cwellan, to kill (see quell): all extant senses show melioration of the orig. meaning

qualm Synonyms

qualm

n.

  1. Doubt

    scruple, misgiving, doubt, compunction, reservation, uneasiness, apprehension, hesitation, hesitancy, indecision, pang, twinge, twinge of conscience, equivocalness, second thought, funny feeling*; see also doubt 2.

  2. Nausea

    faintness, dizziness, queasiness; see illness 1.

qualm implies a painful feeling of uneasiness arising from a consciousness that one is or may be acting wrongly I had qualms about leaving the children alone in the house; scruple implies doubt or hesitation arising from difficulty in deciding what is right, proper, just, etc. to break a promise without scruple; compunction implies a twinge of conscience for wrongdoing, now often for a slight offense to have no compunctions about telling a white lie; misgiving implies a disturbed state of mind resulting from a loss of confidence as to whether one is doing what is right misgivings of conscience

qualm Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • conscience: He experiences no troubles, no problems, no qualms of conscience.

Preposition: about

  • anything: It's quite a laid back group and we have no qualms about reading anything.

Converse of object

  • have: I have never had any qualms over leaving any of my children in their care, even at only 16 weeks old!
  • feel: But I don't feel any qualms about applying it to the people who wrote and voted for the DMCA itself.
  • get: And if you got any qualms about workplace inspections, there's a TUC guide to that too.
  • overcome: Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people.
  • express: But so far, none of these Web publishers has expressed any moral qualms about their actions.
  • show: It was therefore the Stalinist shop stewards who undertook the task of sweating the workers, and they showed no qualms about it.

Adjective modifier

  • moral: Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people.
  • ethical: None of these scientists suffered from the ethical qualms that might have lead to whistle blowing by western researchers.
  • few: Perhaps SPUC would have few qualms about these consequences.
  • serious: I have serious qualms about some practitioners who charge large amounts of money to patients in order to define a supposed individual nutritional approach.
  • such: Lucy didn't have any such qualms, apparently.
  • only: The only qualm is, I hope the cover shown on Amazon isn't the final cover.

Modifies a noun

  • fear: The Turkish Tourist Board in the UK is also keen to qualm fears.