Qualm definitions

kwäm, kwôm
Qualm is defined as a feeling of doubt or sickness.

Feeling nervous about accepting a new job is an example of a qualm.

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An uneasy feeling about the propriety or rightness of a course of action.
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A sudden disturbing feeling.
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A sudden feeling of sickness, faintness, or nausea.
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A sudden, brief feeling of sickness, faintness, or nausea.
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A sudden feeling of uneasiness or doubt; misgiving.
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A twinge of conscience; scruple.
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(now chiefly UK dialectal) Mortality; plague; pestilence.
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(now chiefly UK dialectal) A calamity or disaster.
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A feeling of apprehension, doubt, fear etc. [from 16th c.]

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A sudden sickly feeling; queasiness. [from 16th c.]
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A prick of the conscience; a moral scruple, a pang of guilt. (Now chiefly in negative constructions.) [from 17th c.]
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Origin of qualm

From Middle English qualm, cwalm (“death, sickness, plague"), from Old English cwealm (West Saxon: "death, disaster, plague"), Å«tcualm (Anglian: "utter destruction"), from Proto-Germanic *kwalmaz (“killing, death, destruction"), from Proto-Indo-European *gÊ·el- (“to stick, pierce; pain, injury, death"). Related to cwelan (“to die,") cwellan (“to kill"). The other suggested etymology, less satisfying, is from Dutch kwalm "steam, vapor, mist," which also may be ultimately from the same Germanic root as quell. Sense softened to "feeling of faintness" 1530; meaning "uneasiness, doubt" is from 1553; that of "scruple of conscience" is 1649. An indirect connection between the Old English and modern senses is plausible, via the notion of "fit of sickness."