overscrupulous
- adjective
- /ˌoʊvərˈskruːpjələs/
:
excesivamente escrupuloso
- He often felt overscrupulous about making small decisions, worried he might inadvertently break a rule.
Examples
-
"It will not do to be overscrupulous," he wrote, adding that "it is easy to sacrifice the substantial interests of society by a strict adherence to ordinary rules."
Academic text (1997) -
Her overscrupulous attitude made her double-check every detail of her report before submitting it.
-
" My dear, you are overscrupulous."
Fiction book (1994) -
Hamilton argued that "an overscrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people... is the usual concomitant of love, and... the noble enthusiasm of liberty is apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust."
Academic text (1993) -
The teacher was overscrupulous in grading, ensuring that every rule was followed to the letter.
Synonyms
106
4.4
Careful about small details and hard to please
31
6.6
Giving too much attention to risk and missing good chances
12
7.1
Hard to please and careful about small details
8
8.0
Very careful about small details and being clean, often hard to please
3
7.2
Careful to do things correctly and notice small details
3
6.1
Being more careful than needed because you are afraid of risk
1
8.9
Being very careful about small details and correct behaviour
1
7.2
Tends to want everything done without any mistakes
Being too careful about doing the right thing or duties, often causing stress
Too cautious so someone avoids normal activities
Too worried about small details and hard to please
Antonyms
How Scrupulous
Surface Forms
Morphology
overscrupulous = scrupulous (transparent) = over + scrupulous
The prefix 'over-' adds an excessive/too-much meaning to 'scrupulous', so the overall sense is directly predictable.
Etymology
Overscrupulous joins over- ('too much') with scrupulous, which comes from an old image of a 'small sharp stone' that makes you stop and worry — the same idea behind the word scruple. So, overscrupulous means being 'too careful' or too worried about rules and mistakes.