scrupulous
SKROO-pyuh-lusadjMeaning very careful to do what is right, or to get every detail exact
Memory hook SCREW-pulous: every SCREW just right. Jamal checks every single screw on Kai’s bike, twice, before he says it is safe to ride: he is scrupulous.
The scrupulous cashier ran after a customer to give back a dime of extra change.
In context The judge at the baking contest was scrupulous: she would not taste her own niece’s pie, so that no one could ever say she had been unfair.
Similar conscientious, principled, honest, painstaking
Opposite unscrupulous, dishonest, careless
From Latin scrupulosus, from scrupulus, “a small sharp stone”: a worry that pricks the mind like a pebble in a shoe.