What's the difference between punctilious and scrupulous?

Punctilious


Definition:

  • (a.) Attentive to punctilio; very nice or exact in the forms of behavior, etiquette, or mutual intercourse; precise; exact in the smallest particulars.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It is a sorry reminder that physical evidence must be closeted with care and punctiliously marked for later courtroom uses.
  • (2) The attorney general, George Brandis, sprang to the defence of Heydon, saying the commissioner had an “absolutely stainless reputation for punctilious integrity” and his withdrawal from the event should be the end of the matter.
  • (3) John Prescott's department published an annual Opportunities for All report that punctiliously monitored these social targets: 48 out of 59 indicators improved.
  • (4) Young love; pageantry delivered punctiliously; and old love, too.
  • (5) All he can do – if, as he appears to, he shares the shock of other national leaders – is to join international efforts to establish what happened, even if the results may be unwelcome, and show a punctilious regard for due process.
  • (6) But France, too, must be punctilious about observing all judicial proprieties.
  • (7) Experts think authorities are likely to be punctilious in complying with legal requirements given the close scrutiny.
  • (8) Good-hearted, apparently punctilious people show bias without realising it and may well be taken back or affronted if anyone suggests they have acted unfairly.
  • (9) Photograph: Frank Martin It’s the same sense of fairness that means that, sometimes in the cracks, while writing about other things, he takes time to punctiliously acknowledge his influences – Alan Coren , for example, who pioneered so many of the techniques of short humour that Terry and I have filched over the years; or the glorious, overstuffed, heady thing that is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and its compiler, t he Rev E Cobham Brewer , that most serendipitious of authors.
  • (10) Brandis disputed the description of the event as a fundraiser, saying Heydon had an “absolutely stainless reputation for punctilious integrity” and his withdrawal should be the end of the matter.
  • (11) Brandis defended Heydon in typically florid terms on Thursday: “He has an absolutely stainless reputation for punctilious integrity.” Yet this was the same man who, in what is regarded as his job application speech at a Quadrant dinner for Mary Gaudron’s vacancy, rather nastily attacked Sir Anthony Mason and the high court under his chief justiceship.
  • (12) Two obligatory conditions of effective surgery are emphasized: punctilious performance of all the particulars of the operation and postoperative cytostatic therapy.
  • (13) "Well, Andrew," he says, in that punctiliously courteous way Americans have of employing your name as if it's an honorific, "right at the moment, I'm chief justice of the Nevada Supreme Court."
  • (14) But the government has defended both the commission and the commissioner, with the attorney general, George Brandis, saying Heydon had an “absolutely stainless reputation for punctilious integrity” and his withdrawal from the event should be the end of the matter.

Scrupulous


Definition:

  • (a.) Full ofscrupules; inclined to scruple; nicely doubtful; hesitating to determine or to act, from a fear of offending or of doing wrong.
  • (a.) Careful; cautious; exact; nice; as, scrupulous abstinence from labor; scrupulous performance of duties.
  • (a.) Given to making objections; captious.
  • (a.) Liable to be doubted; doubtful; nice.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Life-threatening or lethal toxicity was encountered when these phenomena were not scrupulously observed.
  • (2) Invariably in these films the visuals are scrupulously authentic, but the "message" is very much in line with the values of their human creators.
  • (3) A plea is made for scrupulous care to avoid starch powder contamination of the operative field.
  • (4) And yet, according to his widow Sheila Ravenscroft, this photograph documents the first stage in a complicated and scrupulous filing system that Peel had maintained for his record collection since 1969.
  • (5) He is always scrupulous to keep his views to himself and enjoys the respect of politicians of all stripes, who recognise the skills of a top operator.
  • (6) Bernie Sanders has scrupulously avoided throwing punches at political rivals during a career that has lasted close to half a century .
  • (7) Telling an institution to “keep its mouth shut” is, quite simply, a threat – entirely different from expressing the hope that the media might want to temper its criticism and scrupulously check its facts.
  • (8) However, he added: “We are going to be scrupulous in investigating cases where we are concerned about the impartiality and accountability that is taking place.” Earlier this week, Obama hosted a White House summit to deal with the fallout from the unrest in Ferguson and concerns about police brutality and stereotyping that the president said have resonated in communities across the country.
  • (9) Infection is a potential risk in diabetic men using intracavernosal injection therapy and those offered it should be informed of the importance of a scrupulous sterile technique and the need to seek urgent medical help for decompression if an erection persists for more than 4-6 h.
  • (10) Of course, even though we brights will scrupulously insist that our word is a noun, if it catches on it is likely to follow gay and eventually re-emerge as a new adjective.
  • (11) This favourable series demonstrates that nowadays with the improved technology and with a scrupulous pharmacological protocol transluminal coronary angioplasty can be performed with a low incidence of complications and excellent results, further assessing its high potential in the treatment of ischemic coronary artery disease.
  • (12) Even with the most scrupulous IUD insertion technics, uterine perforation is a recognized complication.
  • (13) The live footage on the sports channel ESPN was scrupulously presented in line with post-Reithian attitudes to the depiction of private crisis: as soon as it became apparent that Muamba was in extremis, the camera pulled back to a long, high angle, which showed only a distant huddle.
  • (14) These findings indicate the importance of scrupulous hand washing before and after handling each infant and of enforcement of other basic nursery techniques.
  • (15) One critic, for example, in a very patient, and indeed in every respect but one a positively scrupulous, reading of one of Eliot's anti-semitic poems, "Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar," glancingly commented, "the question whether [it is] anti-semitic is obviously not a pressing one".
  • (16) From analysis of the results of scrupulous examination of 66 patients with pathological shadows up to 3 cm in diameter found in the lungs during X-ray examination the authors established that peripheral carcinoma of the lung accounts for 65.2% of all asymptomatic accidentally revealed structures in the lungs.
  • (17) In the absence of added Mg2+ untreated tRNA was acylated in the presence of spermine, but tRNA from which Mg2+ had been scrupulously removed was not.
  • (18) Each stone is then carefully cleaned by hand and scrupulously recorded before being put into storage.
  • (19) The results of our study indicate that a more scrupulous enforcement of legislative measures concerning anti-tetanus vaccination is recommended.
  • (20) Recommended biography Wodehouse: A Life by Robert McCrum (2004) is a masterly study of Wodehouse's achievement, and includes a scrupulous and clear-eyed examination of the wartime scandal which dispenses with much of the accumulated hyperbole.