compunctious

American  

[kuhm-puhngk-shuhs] / kəmˈpʌŋk ʃəs /

adjective

1. causing or feeling compunction; regretful.

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Other Word Forms

• compunctiously
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of compunctious

First recorded in 1595–1605; compunct(ion) + -ious

Example Sentences

Any confusion attaching to this adventure, however, dropped from Kate, whom, as he could see with sacred joy, it must take more than that to make compunctious.

From The Wings of the Dove, Volume II by James, Henry

She has no compunctious visitings for the frauds she has practised, and the misery she has inflicted upon her deceased husbands.

From The Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1 New Edition by Pope, Alexander

Finally the servants gave up the attempt to coax him back into the world, and with a compunctious pity they spread an old rug for him on the chest, and fed him faithfully every day.

From An Isle in the Water by Tynan, Katharine

The sense of a tragedy in herself, more pathetic than any she has depicted, touches us with awe, with tenderness, with compunctious thought of our own failures.

From The Chief End of Man by Merriam, George Spring

"Why do you bother about those brats, Miss Liddon, while the nurse spends all her time flirting over the back fence?" their father said, in a gay but compunctious tone.

From A Humble Enterprise by Cambridge, Ada