moral compass
nounEtymology
From moral (“of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behaviour; conforming to a standard of right behaviour”) + compass (“device used to determine the cardinal directions”), from the fact that a compass indicates various directions on its face (sense 3), and enables its user to find the correct direction to go in (sense 1).
Definitions
An inner sense which distinguishes what is right from what is wrong, functioning as a…
An inner sense which distinguishes what is right from what is wrong, functioning as a guide for morally appropriate behaviour.
- To every sane man in all climes and ages the great Creator has given a moral compass to enable him to avoid the wrong and follow the right. This moral compass we call conscience.
- He steered by the guidance of his own peculiar moral compass, regardless of the rough waters through which it led him.
- They hustle and scheme without moral compass, trying to survive by making accommodations that are at best temporary, more often delusional.
A belief system, person, etc. serving as a guide for morally appropriate behaviour.
- Their catastrophe stemmed from disregarding Christian doctrine: radix malorum est cupiditas (greed is the root of all evil). Without a moral compass, [Robert] Stone's characters cannot even plead ignorance.
- [Philip] Hart is one of those rare men whose ego is smaller than his talents; and whose directness and sense of conscience have led others to regard him as the moral compass of the Senate.
- He writes that Judaism was her moral compass.
The full range of actions, vices, or virtues, which may affect others and which are…
The full range of actions, vices, or virtues, which may affect others and which are available as choices to a person, group, or people in general.
- [W]hile blowing opposite arguments from every point of the moral compass, the adventurous Baron quietly saw himself left to navigate his own vessel his own way, through this storm of his own raising.
- Here Mr. Chevy Slyme, whose great abilities seemed one and all to point towards the sneaking quarter of the moral compass, nudged his friend stealthily with his elbow, and whispered in his ear.
- Ideas are our rudders. As the soul glides along the warm and swelling sea of feeling, it can only be turned to new points of the moral compass by them.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for moral compass. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA