Wiktionary
n. 1 (context usually countable idiomatic ethics English) An inner sense which distinguishes what is right from what is wrong, functioning as a guide (like the needle of a compass) for morally appropriate behavior. 2 (context usually countable idiomatic ethics English) A person, belief system, etc. serving as a guide for morally appropriate behavior. 3 (context usually uncountable archaic idiomatic ethics English) The full range of virtues, vices, or actions which may affect others and which are available as choices (like the directions on the face of a compass) to a person, to a group, or to people in general.
Usage examples of "moral compass".
My policy of not dealing drugs was one of the few fixed points remaining on my moral compass.
There may be a hard road ahead, but I now know that this nation will persevere because it has the will to persevere, it has its rediscovered moral compass for guidance and it has the Hand of Providence for support.
But Micky's tendency wouldn't cause her to wander off forever into the spooky woods where Sinsemilla lived, because Micky also owned a moral compass, which Sinsemilla either never possessed or long ago lost.
I knew the definitions of right and wrong but had no moral compass, no moral sense.
You were employed by your uncle, I believe, and that almost certainly meant that you did all sorts of things without a single reference to any sort of moral compass.
Still, the one basic factor that continued to create friction was his shaky moral compass and her strong sense of right and wrong.
When my parents died, I was left without knowing how to calibrate my moral compass.
Cynicism: the fact that John McCain in this morning's speech several times invoked a ``moral poverty'' in America, a ``loss of shame'' that he blamed on ``the ceaseless assault of violence-driven entertainment that has lost its moral compass to greed'' (McCain's metaphors tend to mix a bit when he gets excited), and made noises that sounded rather like proposing possible federal regulation of all U.
That her father was the strategist and the planner, but that her mother was the power plant that drove the machine and the warm, caring heart which had become her husband's moral compass.
But what was the percentage who'd lost their moral compass these days, not merely among teenagers but in any age group?
But Austin was not a callous man, and philosophy gave him a moral compass to follow when he examined the rightness of his actions.