consciencenoun [ C or U ]
uk/ˈkɒn.ʃəns/us/ˈkɑːn.ʃəns/C2 the part of you that judges how moral your own actions are and makes you feel guilty about bad things that you have done or things you feel responsible for:
a guilty conscience
a question/matter of conscience
You didn't do anything wrong - you should have a clear conscience (= not feel guilty).
My conscience would really bother me if I wore a fur coat.
UK He's got no conscience at all (= does not feel guilty) about leaving me to do the housework.
More examples
- A sense of guilt was deeply embedded in my conscience.
- Let your conscience be your guide.
- The charity used photos of starving children in an attempt to jolt the public conscience .
- Dan's mentioning Julia pricked my conscience and I gave her a call.
- He salves his conscience by giving money to charity.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Morality and rules of behaviour
- antisocial
- bioethics
- book
- claim
- decency
- double standard
- ethic
- moralize
- morally
- norm
- object lesson
- precept
- social contract
- spirit
- the rights and wrongs idiom
- the ways of the world idiom
- two wrongs don't make a right idiom
- value
- voice
- wrong
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Idiom(s)
be/weigh on your conscience
in all conscience