Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Qualm

Qualm , noun

[Anglo-Saxon cwealm death, slaughter, pestilence, akin to Old Saxon & Old High German qualm. See Quail to cower.]

1.
Sickness; disease; pestilence; death. [Obsolete]
thousand slain and not of qualm ystorve [dead]. — Chaucer
2.
A sudden attack of illness, faintness, or pain; an agony.
Qualms of heartsick agony. — Milton
3.
Especially, a sudden sensation of nausea.
For who, without a qualm, hath ever looked On holy garbage, though by Homer cooked? — Roscommon
4.
A prick or scruple of conscience; uneasiness of conscience; compunction. — Dryden