qualm

[ kwahm, kwawm ]
See synonyms for: qualmqualms on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. an uneasy feeling or pang of conscience as to conduct; compunction: He has no qualms about lying.

  2. a sudden feeling of apprehensive uneasiness; misgiving: a sudden qualm about the success of the venture.

  1. a sudden sensation or onset of faintness or illness, especially of nausea.

Origin of qualm

1
First recorded in 1520–30; origin uncertain

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use qualm in a sentence

  • You may have similar qualms over rent and the rightness and wrongness of it.

  • Did Mr. Gryce suffer from any qualms of conscience at having elicited so much and imparted so little?

    The Circular Study | Anna Katharine Green
  • Commercial dealings took the most questionable forms: adulteration of products went on unchecked by any qualms of honesty.

  • Once or twice I felt qualms of pity for the old man, he was such an abject figure in the hands-of that terrible antagonist.

  • And, do you know, I don't think I have many qualms about this England of ours, however badly she behaves sometimes.

    Sinister Street, vol. 1 | Compton Mackenzie

British Dictionary definitions for qualm

qualm

/ (kwɑːm) /


noun
  1. a sudden feeling of sickness or nausea

  2. a pang or sudden feeling of doubt, esp concerning moral conduct; scruple

  1. a sudden sensation of misgiving or unease

Origin of qualm

1
Old English cwealm death or plague; related to Old High German qualm despair, Dutch kwalm smoke, stench

Derived forms of qualm

  • qualmish, adjective
  • qualmishly, adverb
  • qualmishness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012