Com-pūn'c'tion, n.
n. [Lat. compungere, from com and pungere, to prick, sting; Pr. compunctio, Fr. compunction, Sp. compuncion, It. compunzione. See PUNGENT.]
Sense 1. A pricking; stimulation; irritation. [Obs.]
This is that acid and piercing spirit which with such activity and compunction invadeth the brains and nostrils. Browne.
Sense 2. A pricking of heart; poignant grief or remorse proceeding from a consciousness of guilt; the sting of conscience.
He acknowledged his disloyalty to the king, with expressions of great compunction. Clarendon.
Synonyms—COMPUNCTION, REMORSE, CONTRITION. Remorse is anguish of soul under a sense of guilt and dread of punishment. Compunction is the pain occasioned by a wounded and awakened conscience. Neither of them implies true contrition, which denotes the protracted and severe sorrow appropriate to one who has been in a state of peculiar sinfulness. We speak of the gnawings of remorse; of compunction at the remembrance of some act of transgression; of deep contrition in view of our past lives.