A pricking; stimulation. [Obs.] That acid piecering spirit which, with such activity and compunction, invadeth the brains and nostrils. Sir T. Browne.
A picking of heart; poignant grief proceeding from a sense of guilt or consciousness of causing pain; the sting of conscience. He acknowledged his disloyalty to the king, with expressions of great compunction. Clarendon.
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